Japan Specialist

Mark Chadwick

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>J-Front Retailing, a Japanese department store operator, will announce full-year results on April 11.</li>
<li>We expect FY2/23 guidance to be more optimistic as Japan normalises post COVID. </li>
<li>Pent up demand for luxury goods to drive recovery of department stores. J-Front is still trading below book value.</li>
</ul>


J-Front Retailing, a Japanese department store operator, will announce full-year results on April 11.
We expect FY2/23 guidance to be more optimistic as Japan normalises post COVID. 
Pent up demand for luxury goods to drive recovery of department stores. J-Front is still trading below book value.


J-Front (3086) | Recent Datapoints Point to High-End Shoppers Loosening the Purse Strings

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. 

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/marui-group-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13604:1" rel="noopener">Marui Group (8252 JP)</a> is increasingly ethereal, shifting further away from selling merchandise through tenants. </li>
<li>While seen as a shop building operator, Marui is still true to its service origins as a consumer finance business.</li>
<li>Now even its shop buildings are increasingly devoted to non-stuff with the company aiming for 70% of tenancies to be selling things other than merchandise by 2025.</li>
</ul>



Marui Group (8252 JP) is increasingly ethereal, shifting further away from selling merchandise through tenants. 
While seen as a shop building operator, Marui is still true to its service origins as a consumer finance business.
Now even its shop buildings are increasingly devoted to non-stuff with the company aiming for 70% of tenancies to be selling things other than merchandise by 2025.


Marui: 70% of Tenants to Be Non-Merchandise

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events, Quiddity Advisors

Travis Lundy

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

Quiddity Advisors

Event-Driven

NTT (Nippon Telegraph & Telephone) / Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>NTT sees a US$1 billion selldown of shares on Wednesday 29 December. </li>
<li>This is due to a weird quirk in the way TOPIX and JPX Nikkei 400 are constructed and managed - a quirk not generally seen in other major index families.</li>
<li>NTT is cheap to peers, and NTT / Peer EPSe Ratios continue to grow, up and to the right.</li>
</ul>


NTT sees a US$1 billion selldown of shares on Wednesday 29 December. 
This is due to a weird quirk in the way TOPIX and JPX Nikkei 400 are constructed and managed - a quirk not generally seen in other major index families.
NTT is cheap to peers, and NTT / Peer EPSe Ratios continue to grow, up and to the right.


Watch the $1bn Sell-On-Close on NTT (9432) Wednesday

<ul>
<li>We remain very optimistic about the outlook for Mercari's fundamentals, both gross transaction values and operating margins.</li>
<li>The sharing economy in Japan alone remains nascent and Mercari has only just started adding on adjunct value-add services, most of which are (and will) carry high margins.</li>
<li>Even in the core fashion category, which some analysts have assumed is already reaching saturation, CtoC platforms and used retailers have barely scratched the surface as new research shows.</li>
</ul>


We remain very optimistic about the outlook for Mercari's fundamentals, both gross transaction values and operating margins.
The sharing economy in Japan alone remains nascent and Mercari has only just started adding on adjunct value-add services, most of which are (and will) carry high margins.
Even in the core fashion category, which some analysts have assumed is already reaching saturation, CtoC platforms and used retailers have barely scratched the surface as new research shows.


2022 High Conviction – Plenty of Growth Avenues for Mercari, the Apple of CtoC Services

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

The latest Census in Japan confirms the ongoing fall in total population across most of the country but reveals surprising growth markets in small pockets, particularly around Greater Tokyo which now accounts for just under 30% of the total population.There are also ever growing numbers of single people, expanding the promising solo market. In the bigger cities, younger people bring new types of consumption but the increase in older singles is a growing problem.The following provides background macro trends for any investor looking at the Japan consumer space and some stocks we think will benefit from these macro trends.

The latest Census in Japan confirms the ongoing fall in total population across most of the country but reveals surprising growth markets in small pockets, particularly around Greater Tokyo which now accounts for just under 30% of the total population.There are also ever growing numbers of single people, expanding the promising solo market. In the bigger cities, younger people bring new types of consumption but the increase in older singles is a growing problem.The following provides background macro trends for any investor looking at the Japan consumer space and some stocks we think will benefit from these macro trends.

Shrinking, Ageing Japan but a Growing Solo Market

Japan

MARUI GROUP CO., LTD. operates department stores which sell clothing, accessories, home appliances, and food stuffs.  The Company also provides consumer loan services.  Marui Group operates in the Tokyo area.

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Marui Group (8252 JP)

J-Front (3086) | Recent Datapoints Point to High-End Shoppers Loosening the Purse Strings

J-Front Retailing is a beneficiary of COVID normalisation and eventual resumption of inbound tourism. The restructuring and cost cuts bode well for...

Mark Chadwick

Marui: 70% of Tenants to Be Non-Merchandise

Marui gets negative press for being a mall operator in an e-commerce age but as well as a great finance business, it is making its buildings into...

Michael Causton

Watch the $1bn Sell-On-Close on NTT (9432) Wednesday

NTT cancelled shares in November. That leads to a TOPIX event selldown at end-December. For NTT it is US$1bn. But NTT remains undeservedly cheap to...

Travis Lundy

2022 High Conviction – Plenty of Growth Avenues for Mercari, the Apple of CtoC Services

Mercari is much, much more than its CtoC platform and will emerge as a pivotal part of Japan's consumer goods/services/finance distribution system...

Michael Causton

Shrinking, Ageing Japan but a Growing Solo Market

Japan's population is contracting but there are areas of growth, particularly the solo market (single people living alone) and the senior market....

Michael Causton

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