Japan Clothing Industry

Japan Clothing Industry Directory: learn about apparel, fashion & textiles from Japan.

Fashion Industry Overview

Japan's fashion industry is known around the world for two strengths that rarely sit together: advanced textile technology and a distinctive design culture. The directory on this page shows both sides in 22 listings. At the technology end are fiber makers whose materials go into clothing worldwide - Asahi Kasei, whose fibers and textiles operation draws on eight decades of industry leadership; Toho Rayon, a multinational manufacturer of carbon, acrylic and rayon fibers; and Toyobo, a maker of technical fibers, microfibers and polyester fibers produced through sophisticated recycling of polyester bottles. At the design and retail end are Fast Retailing and its best-known brand, UNIQLO, described in its listing as Japan's most popular apparel retailer and a worldwide leader in casual wear, alongside specialists in lab coats, pocket dress shirts, socks, denim and kimono.

Between those poles sits a complete supporting trade: a great general trading house in Itochu, handling everything from raw cotton and yarns to knit and woven garments and interior fabrics; machinery makers for knitting and sewing; a needle-detection equipment maker serving garment quality control; trade shows in Tokyo; and the Japan Fashion Association, whose objective is to create a better life culture and contribute to the development of life-style related industries overall. Fashioninjapan.com, listed below, puts the market's confidence plainly: more and more fashion trends are now starting in Japan, and its service supplies designers, makers, buyers and line-builders with updated pictures of Japanese clothing, shoe, bag and accessory trends so they can develop products ahead of competitors.

Fashion Cities & Regions

Tokyo is the capital of Japanese fashion in every sense. It hosts Tokyo Fashion Week and the Rooms and Living Room trade events, the head offices and showrooms of many of the companies listed here, and shopping and style districts whose names are known worldwide. Harajuku is famous for youth street style - the Harajuku Style page linked above explores it - and neighbouring Shibuya is a centre of youth fashion retail, home also to Royal Navy Tailor in Sarugaku-cho, Shibuya-ku, which handles denim and cotton material made in Japan. Classico, the tailored lab coat maker, works from Meguro-ku, and Fashioninjapan.com from Akasaka, while the Japan Fashion Association is addressed in Nihonbashi-Muromachi, Chuo-Ku, Tokyo's historic merchant quarter.

Osaka is Japan's second great commercial city and its traditional textile trading centre. Jinbo Boeki Shokai exports new and used textile machines and textile piece goods from Azuchimachi, Chuo-Ku, Osaka, and Yoshidayu Co., Ltd. wholesales casual clothes to supermarkets from Hiranoku, Osaka. Beyond the two capitals, production is regional: Okamoto Corporation, the integrated sock manufacturer, is based in Nara and runs factories in Japan, China and Thailand. Denim has its own geography in western Japan: the Okayama area, and Kojima in particular, is known for jeans making and for selvedge denim woven on traditional looms, the cloth behind Japan's reputation among denim buyers worldwide.

Key Industry Sectors

Fibers and textiles are the foundation sector. Asahi Kasei's main business spans Roica polyurethane fibers, Eltas spunbonds, Lamous artificial suedes, Bemliese cupro nonwovens, Bemberg cupro fibers, Leona nylon 66 fibers and polyester filaments, for apparel and industrial applications alike. Kanebo is a diversified manufacturer active in clothing and textiles, making yarns and fabrics from silk, wool and cotton for the fashion industry and yarns and fabrics from synthetic fibers for technical, industrial and garment uses. Itochu's listing reads like a map of the whole textile chain, from raw cotton, wool and rayon through every family of fabric to knit and woven outer and under garments, bedding and interior fabrics and industrial fibres.

Retail brands and specialist makers form the second sector. Fast Retailing owns UNIQLO, GU, Theory, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse tam.tam and J Brand, and its profile is linked from the listing below. UNIQLO's own listing describes a worldwide leader in casual wear whose mission is to empower all individuals through the clothing they choose to wear. The specialists are distinctly Japanese in focus: Classico makes luxurious, stylish lab coats for doctors with fine tailoring techniques and a comfortable slim fit; Takino designs men's dress shirts with many special hidden pockets, treated with nanotechnology to prevent stains, odors and wrinkles; Okamoto sells 125 million pairs of leg wear a year across athletic and fashion socks and hosiery for men, women and children; and Yukata Kimono Sakura Market sells yukata and kimono from Japan in more than 100 designs for women, men and children. Traditional dress remains part of the living industry here - the definitions of the kimono, geta, yukata and hakama linked at the top of this page explain the garments and footwear behind that trade, and the Samurai Clothing guide covers the historical dress that still influences Japanese design.

Fashion Week & Trade Events

Tokyo Fashion Week is the centre of the Japanese fashion calendar, and Apparel Search covers it on the Tokyo Fashion Week page linked above, with the Japan Fashion News and Tokyo Fashion News directories following the season's coverage. The Japan Trade Shows page linked above gathers the country's fashion fairs. Two Tokyo events are listed in the directory itself. Rooms is a fashion and design tradeshow that opens at the beginning of each fashion season in Tokyo: since its first show in 2000, nearly 300 domestic and international brands now participate, offering women's, men's and unisex wear, denim, accessories, shoes, bags, hats, jewelry, furniture, interior, art and more, with special booths for fresh young talents and a selection policy built on highly original and inventive designers.

Living Room is a Tokyo fashion event produced by the French company Sodes, with support of the Federation Francaise du Pret-a-Porter Feminin, the producers of Pret A Porter Paris; Livingroom is a section of international selections within Rooms, run by a different company. Together the runway week and the trade shows make Tokyo the place where Japanese collections are presented to domestic and international buyers, and where the street styles documented by services such as Fashioninjapan.com feed back into product development.

Manufacturing & Sourcing

Japan sells precision manufacturing. Fukuhara makes single knit jersey machinery, double knit jersey machinery and electronic jacquard machinery - the circular knitting machines on which jersey fabrics are produced. The Japan Sewing Machinery Manufacturers Association (JASMA) represents the sewing machinery side of the trade. Quality control has its own specialist: Nissin Electronics developed a range of metal detectors designed specially for detection of a broken or complete needle in garments, suitable for inspection of baby wear, children clothing, ladies clothing, pants, skirts, socks, fabrics, carpet and textile raw materials, alongside pinhole checkers, X-ray inspection systems and related equipment. Jinbo Boeki Shokai in Osaka exports all kinds of new and used textile machines and textile piece goods to interested buyers.

For buyers sourcing finished Japanese production, the directory's makers show what is on offer: denim and cotton textiles made in Japan with garment production made in Japan through Royal Navy Tailor, whose expertise runs from the fabric business and fabric wash and dye processes to tailoring and product construction; tailored medical lab coats from Classico in Tokyo; socks and hosiery from Okamoto's production network across Japan, China and Thailand; and trading-company sourcing through Itochu and through Nichimen, whose group network of over 100 offices worldwide links buyers to supply sources around the world. The Japan Customs Agency page linked above covers the customs side of importing from Japan.

Retail & Market Notes

At retail, Japan pairs the world's most-watched street fashion with retail at the largest scale. UNIQLO is Japan's most popular apparel retailer and a worldwide leader in casual wear; its listing below tells the story of the brand's highly anticipated global flagship opening in SoHo, New York, bringing contemporary Japanese style to that international fashion district, and links to the UNIQLO Store in Soho NY page. Fast Retailing's wider portfolio - GU, Theory, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse tam.tam and J Brand - shows a Japanese group retailing across price levels and markets. Domestically, Yoshidayu wholesales casual clothes in the Japanese market mainly to supermarkets, a reminder that the home market runs from Harajuku boutiques to supermarket clothing departments.

Traditional dress is a retail sector in its own right: Yukata Kimono Sakura Market in Chofu-shi, Tokyo sells yukata and kimono starting from 39 US dollars, with a 100% satisfaction or money back guarantee. Trend information is also a market product in Japan: Fashioninjapan.com presents more than 300 monthly updated pictures of Japanese fashion trends in clothing, shoes, bags, accessories, make up and interior decoration, aimed at designers, makers, buyers and line-builders who need to follow the Japanese market. The Asia Fashion Industry page linked above places Japan in its regional context.

Japan Fashion Industry Companies

Listings are given with the descriptions supplied for each business.

If you would like to read the Apparel Search fashion website in Japanese or another language you can try the website language translator page.