Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets, JapanConsuming

Michael Causton

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets

Real Insight on Japanese Consumer Markets

JapanConsuming

JapanConsuming is a specialist research firm producing intelligence on Japanese retail and consumer markets. Founded in 2000, JapanConsuming has become the leading provider of insights on Japanese retailers and consumer trends to retailers, brands, government agencies and investors. As well as a highly regarded monthly report on the market, JapanConsuming produces in-depth reports on retail sectors, seminars on key trends and telephone consulting to investors on trends and retailers.

JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>The convenience store sector is not only saturated but also facing serious levels of new competition. Despite this, Seven Eleven posted much higher growth in November but problems remain.</li>
<li>The big 3 are working hard to innovate their way out of trouble and move on to new, fertile pastures of growth but Seven Eleven is behind Lawson and Familymart.</li>
<li>Innovation means high levels of differentiation across prices, tech, services and merchandising, making each chain much more distinctive and a fascinating example of where Japanese retail is headed.</li>
</ul>


The convenience store sector is not only saturated but also facing serious levels of new competition. Despite this, Seven Eleven posted much higher growth in November but problems remain.
The big 3 are working hard to innovate their way out of trouble and move on to new, fertile pastures of growth but Seven Eleven is behind Lawson and Familymart.
Innovation means high levels of differentiation across prices, tech, services and merchandising, making each chain much more distinctive and a fascinating example of where Japanese retail is headed.


Seven Eleven: Still a Work in Progress as Lawson and Familymart Innovate

Asia Pac IPO & Placement Research, China biotech, Aequitas Research

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

Asia Pac IPO & Placement Research, China biotech

IPOs and Placements coverage across Asia Pacific

Aequitas Research

We cover all listing across the Asia Pacific along with follow-up placements. As of Dec 2020, our team had covered 539 IPOs with a hit rate of 73.5% and 685 placements with a hit rate of 66.8%.

We combine fundamental bottom-up views with our proprietary quantitative framework to provide a holistic coverage across new listings and placements. Our coverage includes pre-IPO notes before the deal is launched, follow-up analysis once the deal is live and post-listing trading analysis as well.

Quantitative Analysis

<ul>
<li>We analysed the earning revision of component stocks of M-Japan in the past month.</li>
<li>We tabulated stocks with the top impact on index's EPS, stocks' EPS revision, and revenue revision.</li>
<li>We highlighted EPS revision on Toyota Motor, SoftBank, Rakuten, Kioxia, Sony Financial, Ebara, Honda Motor, Softbank, Ebara, Kioxia, Toyota Motor, Honda Motor, Sony Financial, Rakuten.</li>
</ul>


We analysed the earning revision of component stocks of M-Japan in the past month.
We tabulated stocks with the top impact on index's EPS, stocks' EPS revision, and revenue revision.
We highlighted EPS revision on Toyota Motor, SoftBank, Rakuten, Kioxia, Sony Financial, Ebara, Honda Motor, Softbank, Ebara, Kioxia, Toyota Motor, Honda Motor, Sony Financial, Rakuten.


M-Japan Index Earning Revision (Nov): Toyota Motor, SoftBank, Rakuten, Kioxia, Sony Financial

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>Japan is widely owned but lightly held: 88% of global funds now hold Japan—well ahead of Asian peers—yet average weights remain near 15-year lows and structurally underweight vs. ACWI.</li>
<li>Allocations are shallow and skewed: 75% of global funds hold less than 6.3% in Japan; exposures above 10% are rare and concentrated in Value and Yield strategies.</li>
<li>Tech &amp; Industrials dominate; ownership is fragmented: Japan exposure is concentrated in Tech/Industrials, with few consensus stocks beyond Sony and Keyence, and a long tail of lightly held names.</li>
</ul>


Japan is widely owned but lightly held: 88% of global funds now hold Japan—well ahead of Asian peers—yet average weights remain near 15-year lows and structurally underweight vs. ACWI.
Allocations are shallow and skewed: 75% of global funds hold less than 6.3% in Japan; exposures above 10% are rare and concentrated in Value and Yield strategies.
Tech &amp; Industrials dominate; ownership is fragmented: Japan exposure is concentrated in Tech/Industrials, with few consensus stocks beyond Sony and Keyence, and a long tail of lightly held names.


<ul>
<li>We analyzed the changes in margin trading positions of JPX stocks as of Nov 7th. The aggregated net margin trading position is USD20,487m.</li>
<li>We tabulate league tables for top/bottom net long/short of margin trading by value, net margin buy as multiple of ADT.</li>
<li>We highlight net margin buy/sell changes in SoftBank, Advantest, Fujikura, Sanrio, Socionext, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nintendo, Recruit, IHI, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Softbank, Advantest, Fujikura, Sanrio, Socionext.</li>
</ul>


We analyzed the changes in margin trading positions of JPX stocks as of Nov 7th. The aggregated net margin trading position is USD20,487m.
We tabulate league tables for top/bottom net long/short of margin trading by value, net margin buy as multiple of ADT.
We highlight net margin buy/sell changes in SoftBank, Advantest, Fujikura, Sanrio, Socionext, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nintendo, Recruit, IHI, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Softbank, Advantest, Fujikura, Sanrio, Socionext.


JPX Margin Trading Weekly (Nov 7th): SoftBank, Advantest, Fujikura, Sanrio, Socionext

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events, Quiddity Advisors

Travis Lundy

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

Quiddity Advisors

Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>In Friday's Monetary Policy Statement, the BOJ announced it would start selling down its holdings in ETFs and J-REITs at the pace of ¥620bn and ¥5.5bn/year, respectively. <strong>BIG NEWS!</strong>
</li>
<li>That is US$17mm of ETFs and US$150k of J-REITs per day. The BOJ suggests it is 0.05% of volume per day. That's close. <strong>SMALL EFFECT. </strong>
</li>
<li>Given ¥15trln of buybacks and ¥5trln+ of dividend reinvestment + NISA account buys, plus ¥trlns of cross-holding selldowns/year, this is a total nothingburger, even if they up the pace.</li>
</ul>


In Friday's Monetary Policy Statement, the BOJ announced it would start selling down its holdings in ETFs and J-REITs at the pace of ¥620bn and ¥5.5bn/year, respectively. BIG NEWS!

That is US$17mm of ETFs and US$150k of J-REITs per day. The BOJ suggests it is 0.05% of volume per day. That's close. SMALL EFFECT. 

Given ¥15trln of buybacks and ¥5trln+ of dividend reinvestment + NISA account buys, plus ¥trlns of cross-holding selldowns/year, this is a total nothingburger, even if they up the pace.


The BOJ Announces the Start of ETF/JREIT Selldowns - Basically a Nothing-Burger

Japan

KDDI CORPORATION provides mobile communication services and sells mobile devices.  The Company also is a broadband provider.

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KDDI Corp (9433 JP)

Seven Eleven: Still a Work in Progress as Lawson and Familymart Innovate

Convenience store sector in Japan saturated and facing new competition, big 3 innovating to differentiate but Seven Eleven lagging behind.

Michael Causton

M-Japan Index Earning Revision (Nov): Toyota Motor, SoftBank, Rakuten, Kioxia, Sony Financial

We analyzed M-Japan's consensus for Nov 2025 and highlighted changes of EPS in Toyota Motor (7203 JP), SoftBank (9984 JP), Rakuten (4755 JP),...

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

Japan: Cautious Reengagment

Global ownership of Japan is rising, but conviction remains weak. Allocations sit near historic lows, with Value funds leading a cautious rotation...

Steven Holden

JPX Margin Trading Weekly (Nov 7th): SoftBank, Advantest, Fujikura, Sanrio, Socionext

We analyzed JPX margin trading positions report for the past week and highlighted SoftBank (9984 JP), Advantest (6857 JP), Fujikura (5803 JP),...

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

The BOJ Announces the Start of ETF/JREIT Selldowns - Basically a Nothing-Burger

The BOJ announced Friday 19 Sep 2025 it would start to sell its portfolio of ¥80trln of ETFs. That seems like a lot, but the pace is very slow to...

Travis Lundy

Price Gauge

52-week Range

Market Cap (USDm)

P/E

Dividend (Yield)

Seven Eleven: Still a Work in Progress as Lawson and Familymart Innovate

​Convenience store sector in Japan saturated and facing new competition, big 3 innovating to differentiate but Seven Eleven lagging behind.

Michael Causton

M-Japan Index Earning Revision (Nov): Toyota Motor, SoftBank, Rakuten, Kioxia, Sony Financial

We analyzed M-Japan's consensus for Nov 2025 and highlighted changes of EPS in Toyota Motor (7203 JP), SoftBank (9984 JP), Rakuten (4755 JP),...

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

Japan: Cautious Reengagment

Global ownership of Japan is rising, but conviction remains weak. Allocations sit near historic lows, with Value funds leading a cautious rotation...

Steven Holden

JPX Margin Trading Weekly (Nov 7th): SoftBank, Advantest, Fujikura, Sanrio, Socionext

We analyzed JPX margin trading positions report for the past week and highlighted SoftBank (9984 JP), Advantest (6857 JP), Fujikura (5803 JP),...

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

The BOJ Announces the Start of ETF/JREIT Selldowns - Basically a Nothing-Burger

The BOJ announced Friday 19 Sep 2025 it would start to sell its portfolio of ¥80trln of ETFs. That seems like a lot, but the pace is very slow to...

Travis Lundy

Convenience store sector in Japan saturated and facing new competition, big 3 innovating to differentiate but Seven Eleven lagging behind.