Japan began 2018 with a massive drop in its apparel imports both in volumes and values. During the month, the country’s imports tumbled 11.44 per cent in volumes, whereas values were down by 10.15 per cent on the Y-o-Y basis.
According to Apparel Resources’ in-depth analysis, Japan spent more money to import apparels in the first month of 2018. The UVR of imported apparels was Yen 460, up 2.22 per cent from the UVR of last year’s corresponding month at Yen 450.
Over the years, Japanese consumer’s apparel spending has been greatly affected by the factors such as tax increment, ageing population and low disposable income. These factors have resulted in price sensitivity among the Japanese customers and further causing a change in purchasing pattern, and simultaneously the apparel industry in Japan.
As a consequence, even the major apparel exporters could not do well in their respective exports to Japan. China was down significantly in volume-wise apparel exports to the third-largest economy of the world by 16.49 per cent. On the other hand, values too tumbled by 19.14 per cent.
During the review period, India fell both in its volume-wise and value-wise apparel exports to Japan by 5.40 per cent and 1.65 per cent, respectively.
Bangladesh’s export performance was no different than China and India. Apparel exports to Japan during the review period dropped by 2.25 per cent in volumes and 4.63 per cent in values. The country noted declines in both knitted and woven segments.
Interestingly, Vietnam performed remarkably well surpassing all other nations (in percentage-wise growth) in apparel exports to Japan as the South-East Asian manufacturing powerhouse grew by 10.84 per cent in volumes, whereas the country got a 10.07 per cent boost in the export value.