Japan had concluded 2020 with a fall both in weight terms and value terms and the start of 2021 is no positive. The country imported garments worth 201.48 billion yen (US $ 1.85 billion) in Jan. ’21 as compared to 288.68 billion yen (US $ 2.66 billion) in the same month of 2020. In terms of weight, Japanese apparel import declined to 492.22 million kg in Jan. ’21 as against 643.68 million kg in the corresponding month of 2020. The share of knitted garments in overall imports was 102.50 billion yen – US $ 940 million – (down 26.60 per cent), while woven garments constituted 98.91 billion yen (US $ 910 million), noting 34.43 per cent yearly decline. As compared to Dec. ’20, the import of woven garments was up by 10.44 per cent in Jan. ’21. However, knitted clothing shipment remained sluggish by 11.90 per cent on M-o-M basis. In terms of weight-wise import, Japan’s apparel import remained positive by 9.33 per cent in Jan. ’21 over Dec. ’20 which signals towards lowering unit prices that the exporting destinations got! Both knitted and woven garments import by Japan upped by 7.94 per cent and 14.13 per cent, respectively, in the first month of 2021 as compared to the last month of 2020.
