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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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/15213" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:15213:1">Shimamura (8227 JP)</a> is the sure and steady player in Japan’s apparel sector and for a long time has been something of a favourite among Japanese housewives as well as investors.
That status may now be at risk as analysts become concerned with the company’s lack of progress in e-commerce and for not keeping up with changes in customer demand.
As worrying is the negative reaction to recent merchandising, a real concern for a retailer that has built its reputation on fun and cheap stores with a jumble sale atmosphere and design.
Shimamura recently launched an e-commerce initiative but this is not enough, and its plans for a full online store next year are very late.
The only good news is efforts to diversify into new areas like home decoration, but in this market Shimamura faces a lot of competition.
Shimamura looks set for several years of stagnation, and investors may not want to wait for it to make a comeback.

Shimamura (8227 JP) is the sure and steady player in Japan’s apparel sector and for a long time has been something of a favourite among Japanese housewives as well as investors.
That status may now be at risk as analysts become concerned with the company’s lack of progress in e-commerce and for not keeping up with changes in customer demand.
As worrying is the negative reaction to recent merchandising, a real concern for a retailer that has built its reputation on fun and cheap stores with a jumble sale atmosphere and design.
Shimamura recently launched an e-commerce initiative but this is not enough, and its plans for a full online store next year are very late.
The only good news is efforts to diversify into new areas like home decoration, but in this market Shimamura faces a lot of competition.
Shimamura looks set for several years of stagnation, and investors may not want to wait for it to make a comeback.

Shimamura Under Pressure as Sales Fall for First Time in 9 Years and Profits Slump