Japan Retail and Consumer Specialist, 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.

Japan Retail and Consumer Specialist

Convenience Stores: First Decline in 50 Years

Yodobashi Camera: 50% Online in 5 Years with Nationwide Delivery

The Polarising Pandemic in Japanese Retail

Amazon Adds Partnership with Valor in Race for Japan Online Food Retail Leadership

Seiyu: Back in the Mainstream Thanks to Rakuten

Drugstores Leads Large Store Openings in Japan Led by Cosmos Pharma

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 Internet and direct marketing retail / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

There were some fears that e-commerce growth would stall following massive consumer adoption after March 2020 but for <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/rakuten-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31:1" rel="noopener">Rakuten Inc (4755 JP)</a> at least, repeat customers have helped sustain momentum. <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/z-holdings-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:19603:1" rel="noopener">Z Holdings (4689 JP)</a> had a trickier start to the year, however. Last year, excluding the big convenience stores, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/amazon-com-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:409:1" rel="noopener">Amazon.com Inc (AMZN US)</a> overtook Fast Retailing to become Japan’s third largest retailer and one of just four with sales over ¥2 trillion and  accounted for 3.2% of all retail sales in Nikkei’s survey of 488 companies.Despite early, pessimistic forecasts for e-commerce in 2020, METI’s latest annual survey released in July shows that BtoC e-commerce surged 21.7% to ¥12.23 trillion.

There were some fears that e-commerce growth would stall following massive consumer adoption after March 2020 but for Rakuten Inc (4755 JP) at least, repeat customers have helped sustain momentum. Z Holdings (4689 JP) had a trickier start to the year, however. Last year, excluding the big convenience stores, Amazon.com Inc (AMZN US) overtook Fast Retailing to become Japan’s third largest retailer and one of just four with sales over ¥2 trillion and  accounted for 3.2% of all retail sales in Nikkei’s survey of 488 companies.Despite early, pessimistic forecasts for e-commerce in 2020, METI’s latest annual survey released in July shows that BtoC e-commerce surged 21.7% to ¥12.23 trillion.

Japanese E-Commerce Growth Continues