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

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

Izumi and Seven & I Join Forces to Foil Aeon

Seven Eleven’s New ‘Net Conbini’ to Advance Disruption in Food Retailing

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Still “Early Days” for the Last Mile Industrial Segment of the Real Estate Sector

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. 

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Japan Consumer discretionary / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

When your home country population is shrinking, and the number of active consumers falling even faster, there are just four options to expand:
<ol>
<li>Take over your competitors</li>
<li>Move into new business sectors</li>
<li>Build a new market overseas.</li>
<li>Innovation.</li>
</ol>
Japan’s biggest players in consumer distribution are doing the first three, and some the fourth. Tracking this activity provides an insight into where the growth markets are, and where to expect the greatest amount of M&amp;A activity in future.
Over many years it also becomes clear which firms are good at this work – all of these activities require skills that are not innate to local retailers and wholesalers, and for every success story there is a failure too.
<div class="content-highlight">
The net result is clear to see: Japan’s trading companies, along with a couple of retail conglomerates, are the masters of the maze, building powerful consumer distribution groups that will grow further in influence.
</div>
The following is a long read, and probably takes even longer to digest, but we think it provides the background to much of the movement in consumer goods distribution that will happen over the next 5 years, particularly in M&amp;A and growth sectors.

When your home country population is shrinking, and the number of active consumers falling even faster, there are just four options to expand:

Take over your competitors
Move into new business sectors
Build a new market overseas.
Innovation.

Japan’s biggest players in consumer distribution are doing the first three, and some the fourth. Tracking this activity provides an insight into where the growth markets are, and where to expect the greatest amount of M&amp;A activity in future.
Over many years it also becomes clear which firms are good at this work – all of these activities require skills that are not innate to local retailers and wholesalers, and for every success story there is a failure too.

The net result is clear to see: Japan’s trading companies, along with a couple of retail conglomerates, are the masters of the maze, building powerful consumer distribution groups that will grow further in influence.

The following is a long read, and probably takes even longer to digest, but we think it provides the background to much of the movement in consumer goods distribution that will happen over the next 5 years, particularly in M&amp;A and growth sectors. 

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