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

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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 durables and apparel / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

What statistics are available suggest that Japan lags behind China, USA and the UK in terms of e-commerce penetration but this position overlooks the single-minded shift of retailing to integrate e-commerce with traditional retailing.
Japan still has much to offer customers in the high street and these physical stores are now being heavily supplemented through online channels. Already we’re seeing the role of some stores shift towards showrooms making management more efficient and meaningful.
Japan is set to see the e-commerce sector as big as 20% of retail sales by 2024 and many of the operational problems holding online retail back globally, such as last mile fulfilment, could well be solved first in Japan.
Amazon, Rakuten and Softbank/Z/Zozo dominate the market and this dominance looks set to continue but other players are growing too with some retailers also finally working out how to make e-commerce work.

What statistics are available suggest that Japan lags behind China, USA and the UK in terms of e-commerce penetration but this position overlooks the single-minded shift of retailing to integrate e-commerce with traditional retailing.
Japan still has much to offer customers in the high street and these physical stores are now being heavily supplemented through online channels. Already we’re seeing the role of some stores shift towards showrooms making management more efficient and meaningful.
Japan is set to see the e-commerce sector as big as 20% of retail sales by 2024 and many of the operational problems holding online retail back globally, such as last mile fulfilment, could well be solved first in Japan.
Amazon, Rakuten and Softbank/Z/Zozo dominate the market and this dominance looks set to continue but other players are growing too with some retailers also finally working out how to make e-commerce work.

Japanese E-Commerce Review 2020: Softbank/Z, Rakuten and Amazon to Dominate Further