Japan’s economic conditions, except price rise, remained largely in control in 2024. Japan’s core inflation stayed at or above the Central bank’s 2-per cent target for the 28th month in a row, and third consecutive month in July 2024. In the same month, the ‘core’ index, excluding fresh food and energy costs, rose 1.9 per cent after increasing 2.2 per cent in June. However, the government subsidies for electricity and gas, which ended in May before returning back in August, continued to be a concern that reflected in the price increase in July.
Japan’s 2024 economy faced controlled inflation but rising costs due to fluctuating subsidies.
Textile trade showed mixed results; imports rose while textile machinery exports declined.
Innovations included recycled BOPP film, advanced busbar covering, biomass-derived LCP, and DuPont’s photoresist expansion.
JIAM 2024 featured cutting-edge apparel and non-apparel technology.
Japanese international trade of textile and clothing, up to August, demonstrated the usual ups and downs, except for exports of textile machinery which continued to show a consistent fall across comparable periods.
Trade in May
The month of May – second in the fiscal 2025, was particularly good for imports. The clothing and accessories imports increased 16 per cent to ¥258,270 million (~$1,700 million) contributing 2.7 per cent to the country’s total imports of ¥9,497,927 million. The increase in clothing imports during the month was second time in a row, after declining in previous months and the previous fiscal 2024. In addition, an 8.8 per cent y-o-y increase was seen in the textile yarn and fabric imports during the month, amounting to ¥102,626 million that accounted for 1.1 per cent of total imports. On the exports front, textile yarn and fabric increased 11.4 per cent reaching ¥67,648 million. However, exports of textile machinery dropped 32.8 per cent amounting to ¥21,418 million while contributing 0.3 per cent to total exports.
Six-month trade
On a six-month basis, from January to June, Japan’s imports of clothing and accessories reached ¥1,686,160 million (~$11,019 million). This represented an increase of 6.9 per cent over the imports during the same period last year. The share of this import was 3.1 per cent to total imports. The six-month imports of textile yarn and fabric, however, declined 1.3 per cent y-o-y, totalling to ¥561,889 million that contributed 1 per cent of total imports during the period. Specifically, in June, the imports of clothing and accessories at ¥240,887 million ($1,574 million) was 0.6 per cent more than the imports in June 2023. The imports of textile yarn and fabric decreased 13.5 per cent to ¥7,109 million during the same month.
The exports of textile yarn and fabric in six-month period reached ¥403,331 million, registering an increase of 8.9 per cent but ¥128,147 million worth of textile machinery exports dropped 20.3 per cent y-o-y. The outbound shipment of textile yarn and fabric was noted as ¥73,516 million in June 2024, 6.3 per cent higher than the trade in the corresponding month of 2023. Textile machinery exports fell by 26.8 per cent to ¥19,143 million in June 2024.
China’s domination
The textile and clothing imports continued to increase in July too, marking a 14.9 per cent increase over July 2023. The import amounted to $2.8 billion (~¥428 billion) versus $2.44 billion (~¥373 billion) reflecting a rise in consumer demand and the country’s reliance on imported textiles to meet domestic demand. In this, clothing imports worth $1.9 billion (¥291 billion) increased 12.5 per cent y-o-y, while textile imports including fabrics and yarn increased 18.2 per cent and reached $900 million. The growth was driven by the recovery in consumer spending following the softening of COVID-19 restrictions and resurgence in the retail sector.
China remained Japan’s top supplier of textile and clothing with 55 per cent share. The import from China in July stood at $1.54 billion (~¥236 billion), increasing 10 per cent y-o-y. The other major suppliers were Vietnam, Bangladesh and India, all with double-digit growth in their export volumes to Japan. The surge in imports underscored Japan’s growing demand for affordable and diverse fashion options, as well as high-quality textiles used in its various industries. However, it also highlights Japan’s dependence on international markets, making the country vulnerable to global supply chain disruptions.
Japan’s exports of textile yarn and fabric in July rose by 8.2 per cent compared to July 2023, reaching ¥72,547 million ($474 million). In contrast, exports of textile machinery continued to fall, 28.1 per cent during the month, amounting to ¥21,282 million ($139 million) and contributing 0.2 per cent to total exports.
Trade in August
In August, exports of textile yarn and fabric increased 9.2 per cent compared to the same month last year and reached ¥66,353 million (~$434 million); and, exports of textile machinery, amounting to ¥23,262 million (~$152 million), fell 9.5 per cent. The imports of clothing and accessories during the month decreased 8.1 per cent to ¥348,002 million (~$2.27 billion) and constituted 3.8 per cent of total imports (¥9.137 trillion), according to provisional data from Japan’s Ministry of Finance. The imports of textile yarn and fabric decreased 5.7 per cent totalling to ¥91,014 million (1 per cent of total imports).
Manufacturing woes in September
The manufacturing sector had a troubled third quarter, with fall in production levels and a sustained drop in new orders continuing into September, as per au Jibun Bank Japan manufacturing PMI data. The headline manufacturing PMI in August was 49.8 (neutral 50 being the threshold) which dropped marginally to 49.7 in September, indicating a decline, though a slight one, in overall operating conditions.
The output charges rose at the slowest rate since mid-2021. Although average operating expenses remained historically high, the firms chose not to pass the whole of elevated costs on to the clients. Inflationary pressures remained high across Japan’s manufacturing industry pushing the firms to spend higher on labour, logistics and raw materials. However, the rate of inflation had eased from August to reach the lowest for five months.
In addition, the level of new orders placed with Japanese manufacturers continued to fall due to economic weaknesses. Nevertheless, this was partially offset by firms opting to complete outstanding orders. This resulted in backlogs of work falling at moderate pace which extended the prevalent sequence of depletion to two years. Adding to the woes of the manufacturing sector, international demand dipped with the new export sales contracting at a solid rate that was the strongest since March.
At the same time, the level of input inventories also rose during the month. This was due to reductions over two consecutive months as firms held pre-production inventories to stay prepared for any eventual demand recovery. When manufacturers raised input purchases slightly in September, the vendor performance went down with lengthening of delivery times – a distinct for seven-month period.
The rate of job creation remained fractional during the month, also lowest for a consecutive seven-month sequence.
Despite all these challenges, the business confidence remained positive in September, based on the expectations of renewed demand and, as its outcome, the mass production of new products that would follow. Firms stayed hopeful for a wider economic recovery. Meanwhile, Japanese companies continued to deliver some notable innovations for the industry.
New BOPP film
The month of October saw the sample launch of a recycled flexible packaging BOPP (Biaxially-Oriented Polypropylene) – a type of plastic film with a wide range of applications in the packaging, labelling, and laminating industries. The film is the result of a joint pilot test, initiated in August 2023, by Toppan Holdings Inc. group company Toppan Inc., RM Tohcello Co., Ltd., and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. The printed waste generated by Toppan gets collected and taken to Mitsui Chemicals’ Nagoya Works which removes the ink to turn waste into pellets, which are then converted into film by RM Tohcello. The tested film is suited for mass production processes such as printing, laminating and pouch forming. The BOPP film samples were displayed at both the Toppan’s and Mitsui’s booths at Tokyo Pack 2024 event held on October 23-25, 2024. The three companies, which together established a technological and operational framework for the horizontal recycling of flexible packaging film, hope to see it enter the market within FY25 after further development and popularising.
The Japanese Government’s Resource Circulation Strategy for Plastics includes a target of transitioning to reusable or recyclable plastic designs by 2025. Milestones under the strategy for 2030 include the reuse and recycling of 60 per cent of plastic containers and packaging and doubling of recycling of plastic resources. With 2025 as an important starting point towards these milestones, it will be essential for companies engaged in the industry to expand efforts for reuse and recycling on their way to 2030.
Advanced busbar covering
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. developed the ST-OR Type heat-shrinkable silicone rubber tubing for busbar covering for the first time in the industry. Typically made of copper or aluminium, the busbar is a conductive metallic strip used for power connection or distribution. Busbars have wide-range of applications not only in switchboards and control panels but also in electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid vehicles (HEVs). Busbars are protected with tape, tubing or other insulating parts as they are subjected to high currents and voltages, and in case of EVs and HEVs this subjection is even more severe. This calls for the insulations with more advanced properties of electrical insulation and heat resistance. The ST-OR Type heat-shrinkable silicone rubber tubing for busbar covering is a new product that meets these requirements. The key features of new product include dielectric strength of 28 kV/mm, operating temperature range of −40°C to +200°C, bright orange on the outer surface, flexibility retention even after heat shrinking, and availability of ST-TC-1 Type for thermal interface applications, making it suitable for covering a heating part to transfer heat to the casing.
Biomass-derived LAPEROS
In September, Polyplastics Co., Ltd. – the global leader in engineering plastics, launched the LAPEROS bG-LCP sustainable solution based on biomass-derived materials which reduces CO2 emissions and improves the renewable content ratio. The solution is based on mass balance approach – an accounting principle that matches the inputs, such as plastic waste, with outputs from a recycling or production process to determine the recycled content. The mass balance approach combines raw materials derived from biomass with those derived from fossil resources. When further combined into resin manufacturing processes, a portion of the resulting product can be considered to be biomass-derived, according to the volume of biomass raw material input. Thus, it eliminates the prevalent need of producing biomass-derived and fossil resource-derived products separately. Furthermore, the users have no need to re-evaluate performance and quality for each separate grade. In this way, the approach effectively helps to achieve carbon neutrality and a circular economy more quickly. To be commercialised in spring 2025, LAPEROS bG-LCP is manufactured like conventional products and exhibits the same chemical and physical properties. The company plans to expand this new solution to all grades of LAPEROS LCP.
DuPont enhanced local capacity
On October 3, 2024, DuPont announced the successful completion of a significant expansion for photoresist manufacturing capacity at the DuPont Sasakami Site in Agano-shi, Niigata, Japan. The celebration event commemorated the opening of a new building named the East Star – a component of DuPont’s growth strategy for its lithography offerings. With this expansion, DuPont nearly doubled its photoresist production capacity at the site. The East Star Building features state-of-the-art cleanrooms with air cleanliness standards ranging from ISO Class 10 to Class 1000 for the production of high-quality photoresists. Additionally, the advanced automation systems have been implemented to reduce contamination risks and maintain a controlled, hygienic environment.
JIAM 2024
The 13th edition of the Japan International Apparel & Non-Apparel Manufacturing Technology Trade Show (JIAM) 2024 Osaka took place from November 27 – 30, 2024 at INTEX Osaka, with inclusion of ‘non-apparel’ this time, to showcase the cutting-edge innovations from around the world. The non-apparel sectors had attracted a significant increase in exhibitors from the aerospace, automation and aviation industries, by the time this feature went in print, reflecting the growing demand for advanced textile solutions in these high-tech fields. The visitors were due for opportunity to explore a dynamic range of sewing and cutting machinery, latest textile products, technologies and services that drive industry innovation in critical sectors.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SB – WE)
