According to The Japan Textiles Importers Association report based on Ministry of Finance trade statistics, the nation’s apparel imports in January 2017 increased by 17.1% in quantity and 10.4% in value over the same month of 2016 to 341.76 million units worth 249,797 million yen.
Asian apparel manufacturers increased their production as the Chinese New Year would start from the end of January, and this resulted in increasing January imports.
The breakdown of January apparel imports was: woven garments, 114.98 million units (up 13.8%) worth 130,525 million yen (up 9.2%), and knitwear, 226.78 million units (up 18.9%) worth 119,272 million yen (up 11.8%).
Apparel imports from China grew by 18.0% and 12.3% respectively to 238.26 million units valued at 164,894 million yen. China’s share in total apparel imports was 69.7% in volume (up 0.5 percentage points) and 66.0% in value (up 1.0 point).
Imports from ASEAN rose by 15.3% and 6.4% respectively to 77.91 million units worth 56,717 million yen. In addition to continuing strong growths in imports from Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia, imports from Thailand and Malaysia contributed greatly to the increase in January imports.