Japan’s garment imports have been steadily dropping since April 2021, both in terms of weight and value. In January-April of this year, the country imported clothing worth 853.70 billion yen (US $ 7.73 billion), a 5.52 percent decrease from the same period in the previous year. The drop has been caused by a decrease in demand for woven clothes in the Japanese apparel market.
Low unit pricing in 2021 have put exporters to Japan under enormous strain, with per kilogramme clothes imported by Japan valued at only 410 yen (US $ 3.71) in the first four months of 2021, down from 440 yen a year earlier. The decline in the Japanese garment market is cause for great concern, as 2020 was a year when the country saw the full impact of COVID-19 across all industries.
The continued fall in 2021 is not encouraging, and exporters must wait to see when the Japanese textile market recovers.
