Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets, JapanConsuming

Michael Causton

Michael is co-founder and partner at 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 and seminars on retail sectors and consumer trends, as well as telephone consulting/meetings with investors. 

All of JapanConsuming's team are bilingual and bi-cultural, and the company's research sources are:

Direct meetings with retailers, wholesalers, distributors, trade body staff, govt., marketing firms, academics etc.
Govt. data
Trade association data
Trade Press across all consumer sectors
Unique Network of buyers/managers/marketing staff at retail, as well as wholesalers and trading firms.
Editors/Journalists at publishing houses and PR/Ad firms.


JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

Michael Causton set up and ran a consumer distribution business in Tokyo for 10 years and developed this into a business responsible for annual imports to Japan of several billion Yen, at the same time building up an inside knowledge of how Japanese distribution works and developing a network of contacts across the industry. Seeing the lack of quality market intelligence on Japanese markets, he co-founded JapanConsuming in 2000. He divides his time between Japan and Europe/US consulting for companies, governments and investors, including providing talks, seminars, and webinars as well as writing reports and books.

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets

Japan Retail: Who Owns Who in 2018: Never Have so Many Been Owned by so Few

Smartkarma's Week That Was in JP/KR: Telcos, Cosmetics, Retail, Semi Wafers, and Korean LCCs

Smartkarma's Week That Was in JP/KR: BOJ Again, JP/KR Earnings! & SK Telecom

Itochu's Tender Offer Provides an Attractive Profit-Taking Opportunity

Itochu Tender For FamilyMart - Winnie Sees a Hunny Pot But Greedy Bears Get Stuck

Did Itochu & BOJ Buying of FamilyMart-UNY in the Past Year Squeeze It Vs Comps?

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

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/18448" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:18448:1">Itochu Corp (8001 JP)</a>'s recent decision to spend ¥120 billion acquiring a majority stake in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/320" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:320:1">FamilyMart UNY Holdings (8028 JP)</a> has been a long time coming. Itochu has effectively run Familymart since acquiring its initial stake in 1999, setting off a string of retail acquisitions by trading firms since. Now, having brokered the deal that merged Familymart with Uny in 2016, it is increasing its take from 41.45% of the new holding company to 50.1%. The reasoning behind the move is to gain…

Itochu Corp (8001 JP)'s recent decision to spend ¥120 billion acquiring a majority stake in FamilyMart UNY Holdings (8028 JP) has been a long time coming. Itochu has effectively run Familymart since acquiring its initial stake in 1999, setting off a string of retail acquisitions by trading firms since. Now, having brokered the deal that merged Familymart with Uny in 2016, it is increasing its take from 41.45% of the new holding company to 50.1%. The reasoning behind the move is to gain…

Pan Pacific International Holdings (7532 JP)

Itochu Building Japan's First End-To-End Food Chain Through Familymart Uny

FamilyMart Co Ltd

Itochu Building Japan's First End-To-End Food Chain Through Familymart Uny