The global COVID-19 pandemic has made a huge dent in the Japanese fashion apparel industry, prompting widespread closures of the country’s department stores.
As a result, Japan imported 903.5 billion yen (US$ 8.41 billion) of clothing during the period January-April ’20, marking a downturn of 9.60 per cent on an annual basis. According to the data released by the Ministry of Finance, Japan was also down by 8.80 per cent in weight to import 2,076 million kg worth of garments from the world over.
Shipping of Vietnamese apparel to Japan valued at 149.29 billion yen (US$ 1.39 billion), marking an increase of 4.81 per cent on Y-o-Y.
In the first four months of 2020 , China exported 486.05 billion yen (US$ 4.53 billion) of clothing to Japan, a decrease of 14.43 per cent, while India’s exports were priced at 11.71 billion yen (US$ 110 million), down 21.58 per cent from what it exported the same duration of the previous year.
Bangladesh’s exports to Japan diminished too. Bangladesh’s shipment was priced at 46.59 billion yen (US$ 434 million), noting a decline of 3.04 per cent on Y-o – Y basis.
