| 

Japan year-end review 2023: Growing on Imports

Imports between January and May

In April, Japan’s apparel imports were $*.* billion – * per cent higher than April ****, and * per cent higher than **** on YTD basis. In this import, share of Vietnam increased * per cent while China’s declined * per cent in comparison to **** performance. Despite de-growth, China still ended up being the largest apparel supplier to Japan, holding more than half of total imports with ** per cent share during four-month period of January to April ****. In comparison, Vietnam supplied only ** per cent, whereas supply share of Bangladesh and Cambodia stood at * per cent and * per cent, respectively. The total import supplies from other countries to Japan bucked western trends as its diversification of supplier countries remained considerably less than those of the US, the UK and the EU. In May – the second month of FY**, there was a **.* per cent decrease in the imports of clothing and accessories, amounting to ¥***,*** million ($~*,*** million) when compared to May of last year. This formed *.* per cent share in the total imports of ¥*,***,*** million that the country received, as per the provisional trade statistics provided by the country’s ministry of finance.