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

Japan Retail: Essentials Strong in May but in June Even Discretionary Bounces Back

Muji Expands Channels with Lawson and Major Online Malls

The Japan Retail Review: Winners and Losers in Japanese Retailing (Part I)

Kirindo Establishing Drugstore Dominance in Kansai

After Covid: The Future for Japanese Retail: Winners & Losers

Japanese Drugstores: With Maturity Comes Marriage

Japan's Department Stores: The Most to Lose but Also the Hardest Hit

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/aeon-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:3:1" rel="noopener">Aeon Co Ltd (8267 JP)</a> is Japan’s largest retail conglomerate by revenues but it struggles to make respectable profits.Now, as with Seven-Eleven at <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/seven-i-holdings-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1041:1" rel="noopener">Seven &amp; I Holdings (3382 JP)</a>, Aeon may have found the high margin star subsidiary it has been looking for: Welcia Holdings.Welcia is the country’s leading drugstore chain and is growing strongly, exceeding ¥1 trillion in sales for the first time and forecasting an increase to ¥1.8 trillion through 2023.Last year, it made almost as much profit as the whole of Aeon combined but there are plenty of opportunities to extract more profit from this sector.Like most Japanese drugstore stocks, Welcia is currently trading at historically high levels thanks to a surge in sales from March onwards (see below for details)  but with more consolidation coming in the sector led by the leaders, Welcia is a solid buy when dips in the market provide an opportunity.

Aeon Co Ltd (8267 JP) is Japan’s largest retail conglomerate by revenues but it struggles to make respectable profits.Now, as with Seven-Eleven at Seven &amp; I Holdings (3382 JP), Aeon may have found the high margin star subsidiary it has been looking for: Welcia Holdings.Welcia is the country’s leading drugstore chain and is growing strongly, exceeding ¥1 trillion in sales for the first time and forecasting an increase to ¥1.8 trillion through 2023.Last year, it made almost as much profit as the whole of Aeon combined but there are plenty of opportunities to extract more profit from this sector.Like most Japanese drugstore stocks, Welcia is currently trading at historically high levels thanks to a surge in sales from March onwards (see below for details)  but with more consolidation coming in the sector led by the leaders, Welcia is a solid buy when dips in the market provide an opportunity.

Welcia Holdings

Welcia: Aeon’s Profit Machine