Big increases in Japan' s textile and apparel imports from China

Consumption of Japan' s textile and apparel has been depressed for a long time, but with the strong economic stimulus policy since 2020, textile and apparel consumption has rebounded up with the growth of GDP. The latest data showed that the volume and value of Japan' s textile and apparel imports in Jan increased month-on-month and year-on-year. Japan' s textile imports totaled 336.79billion yen, up 18.1% from the same period last year, of which imports from China were 201.43billion yen, up 19.9% from the same period last year but down from the same period in 2019.  

Seasonal rule of clothing consumption in Japan is similar to that in China. Japan's main sales discount season is in November and December, which includes The Black Friday and Christmas. The Japanese celebrate the New Year on January 1 and it lasts for two weeks. After the peak consumption season in the fourth quarter, January is often the time for Japanese merchants to replenish their stocks. Therefore, according to the data of previous years, compared with December, the imports of the textile and apparel in January would increase.

In terms of the volume and value of Japan's textile and apparel imports from China, and the growth rate of the imports from China was greater than that of total imports. The growth rate of imports value was higher than that of imports volume, reflecting the increase in unit prices and the impact of inflation.  

China is the largest exporter to Japan for textile and apparel with an overwhelming share more than 50%-60% for a long time. That is to say, whether the consumption of Japan's textile and apparel is good or not depends on the imports from China.