Japan - A Modern Retail Superpower

ROY LARKE is Professor of Marketing at ESADE School of Business, Barcelona, Spain, and at the University of Marketing and Distribution Sciences, Kobe, Japan. He has lived and worked in Japan since 1985, where he teaches retailing and consumer behaviour in Japanese to Japanese students. He publishes regularly in academic journals both Japanese and English and is a recognized authority on the Japanese market. In addition to Japan: A Modern Retail Superpower, he wrote Japanese Retailing (Routledge, 1994), the first definitive guide to the Japanese retail market written by an insider. He has also published two books in Japanese on e-learning and other issues related to pedagogy in Japan. He currently splits his time between Japan and Europe, and is Editor of the influential monthly report, JapanConsuming (http://www.japanconsuming.com). MICHAEL CAUSTON has founded and built up several companies in Japan. He is senior partner of Sensu (www.sensu.com), a market intelligence and marketing firm that specializes in Japanese consumer marketing and research. He moved to Japan in 1992, consulting for overseas companies looking to enter the Japanese market. He established a fashion import business in 1993 that was helping overseas brands sell more than Y2.2 billion in apparel a year to Japan by 1999. He also founded JapanConsuming with Roy Larke in 2000, a research business on Japanese retailing that is recognized as the leading resource on market entry and business development for international consumer goods companies operating in the Japanese market. He spends his time between Europe and Japan, writing, researching and speaking on Japanese consumer markets, as well as advising leading overseas brands.

INTRODUCTION Japan's Retail Market in Context PART 1: THE BACKGROUND TO JAPANESE DISTRIBUTION The Japanese Consumer Market Development of Modern Retailing in Japan Wholesaling and Sogo Shosha PART 2: OLD RETAILING: GENERAL MERCHANDISERS Department Stores General Merchandise Retail Chains Food Supermarkets Convenience Stores PART 3: NEW RETAILING: SPECIALISTS Introduction to Speciality Merchandise Retailing in Japan Apparel Retailing Drivers of Retail Specialization Other Speciality Retailers PART 4: FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS Internationalization of Japanese Retailers CONCLUSION Japan: A Modern Retail Superpower