According to The Japan Textiles Importers Association report on the nation’s apparel imports, based on Ministry of Finance trade statistics, 2017 imports increased by 3.1% over the previous year to 2,621,464 million yen. Quantitatively, apparel imports grew by 2.1% to 3,699.62 million units.
For the first time in four years, imports from China were about the same in quantity and slightly higher in value {2,483.55 million units (up 0.5%) worth 1,638,439 million yen (up 1.1%)}.
Meanwhile, the share of imports from ASEAN rose, as the shift of production toward this region advanced. Apparel imports from ASEAN amounted to 918.60 million units (up 9.2%) valued at 673,622 million yen (up 9.1%).
The growth in import volume from ASEAN was smaller than the 11% growth in 2016, but the share of ASEAN in total Japanese apparel imports rose to 24.8% in terms of quality (up 1.6 percentage points) and 25.7% in value (up 1.4 points). The import quantities from Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam posted double-digit growths with imports of knitwear playing a leading role.