Bangladesh becomes Japan's third largest apparel supplier

The Japan-Bangladesh Joint Economic Dialogue highlighted bilateral trade prospects in various sectors. In the field of textiles, Japan is a major importer and Bangladesh is one of the largest textile suppliers in the world. Recent data shows that Bangladesh is the third largest apparel supplier to Japan with a market share of 5.37%. In 2022, Japan imported $1.34 billion worth of apparels from this South Asian country.

Last year, Japan imported $24.953 billion worth of apparels, with Bangladesh the third-largest exporter after China and Vietnam. Shipments from Bangladesh rose to $1.340 billion in 2022 from $1.165 billion in 2021. Japan's apparel imports from Bangladesh were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, falling to $1.033 billion from $1.167 billion in 2019. The trade volume in 2018 was $1.122 billion. Trousers and shorts were the most important garments imported by Japan last year, accounting for 36.72% of the total import value. In terms of value, sweatshirts and T-shirts accounted for 19.32% and 17.16% respectively.

Japan's fabric imports from Bangladesh also rose, jumping to $1.733 million from $1.108 million in 2021. However, the import of fabrics is insignificant compared to that of apparels.