- Men's suits in this context covers woolen, fine hair and fur, synthetic fiber and spun fiber suits, generally known as "business suits", and does not include jackets, blazers, or trousers.
- Suits first emerged in Britain in the 1840s as a form of private attire for gentlemen. The suit was created by removing the tails from a tail coat, and it quickly became popular in the United States due to its convenience. It then started to be worn in Europe, and spread throughout the world. By the 1870s, it had become the typical style of clothing for the average man.
- Suits started to be worn in Japan in 1868, after the Meiji Restoration, and they first came to be called "sebiro"(the word for a business suit in Japanese, possibly a contraction of "civil clothes" or alternatively "Savile Row") in 1870. In the decades before the Second World War, suits were generally worn only by a few members of the upper class and in particularly fashionable circles, but they became common from around 1950 after World War ll.
- In 1997, approximately 7.15 million suits were produced domestically, and around 4.85 million were imported and about 28,000 exported. 60 percent of total demand was therefore satisfied by domestic production, and 40 percent by imports.
- 28,621 suits were exported in 1997 (JPY326.67 million in terms of value) to the following destinations :
|
Value |
(JPY million)
|
| Taiwan |
190.072 |
(58%) |
| China |
40.734 |
(13%) |
| Hong Kong |
20.097 |
( 6%) |
| U.S.A. |
18.087 |
( 6%) |
South Korea
|
14.399 |
( 4%) |
| Australia |
14.255 |
( 4%) |
| U.K. |
10.910 |
( 3%) |
| Singapore |
5.024 |
( 2%) |
| France |
4.087 |
( 1%) |
| Others |
9.007 |
( 3%) |
- As consumers seek low-priced goods, makers of men's suits have recently shifted their operations overseas, where costs are lower. There, suits are generally processed using brought-in materials (the materials and patterns are exported, and the suits are only sewn together overseas.) In 1989, imports from South Korea, which accounted for over 50 percent of total imports into Japan, fell sharply due to the surge in labor costs.
- Unit imports in 1997 were 4,853,133, or JPY46.343994 billion in terms of value. The sources of imports by value were as follows :
|
Value |
(JPY million)
|
| China |
27,730.414 |
(60.0%) |
| Italy |
8,874.615 |
(19.0%) |
| Philippines |
1,868.988 |
( 4.0%) |
| North Korea |
1,634.833 |
( 3.5%) |
| Hong Kong |
1,607.811 |
( 3.5%) |
| Indonesia |
1,022.036 |
( 2.2%) |
| Thailand |
933.570 |
( 2.0%) |
| Germany |
888.329 |
( 1.9%) |
| Switzerland |
324.239 |
( 0.7%) |
| Taiwan |
274.465 |
( 0.6%) |
| Spain |
232.564 |
( 0.5%) |
| South Korea |
202.802 |
( 0.4%) |
| UK |
166.644 |
( 0.4%) |
| France |
144.908 |
( 0.3%) |
| U.S.A. |
78.611 |
( 0.2%) |
| Others |
359.205 |
( 0.8%) |
Imports from Vietnam, though zero at present, are expected to grow in the future.
- Given that apparel imports shrank in 1997, the growth in imports of men's suits is particularly striking. Unit imports were up 42 percent over the previous year, and unit imports from China in particular were up 59 percent to 3.65 million, accounting for 75 percent of imports in terms of volume and 60 percent in terms of value.
Not only suburban specialty stores such as Aoyama Shoji and Aoki International, but also small and medium-sized specialist retailers registered a strong shift towards sales of Chinese-made suits. However, although there was no excess stock due to the rush in demand in the spring and summer of 1997 prior to the increase in the consumption tax rate to 5 percent, sales in the competitive autumn/winter period slumped, and the amount of stock carried over is increasing substantially, depressing imports and necessitating inventory adjustment. Sales have remained depressed in 1998, and domestic production will inevitably be affected.
- The sales channels for men's suits were as follows (all figures approximate / Unit : million) :
| Department stores |
3.30 suits |
(27.5%) |
| Mass retailers |
1.30 suits
|
(10.8%) |
Suburban specialty stores
|
6.6 suits |
(55.0%) |
| Others |
0.80 suits |
( 6.7%) |
Despite slumping, sales at suburban specialty stores still account for 55 percent of total sales.
- Some 100 plants have been set up overseas independently or as joint ventures by Japanese trading firms and makers, and these are located mainly in China. Although some merchandise produced overseas is marketed locally, the majority is exported back to Japan. Thanks to Japanese technical assistance, the quality of these products has been improving significantly.
- Department stores purchase foreign products through trading firms, particularly brand-name goods. Mass retailers also handle large quantities of imports, which retail for around JPY19,800/suit. Suburban specialty stores are themselves expanding overseas and exporting suits back for sale in Japan.
- Materials have until now been sent to plants overseas, but recently Daido Keori has set up a joint venture in China, and locally produced materials are now starting to replace materials sent from Japan.
- As indicated above, although there has been a shift from imports due to overstocking and the depreciation of the yen, this is just a temporary phenomenon. Given the high cost of labor in Japan and labor shortages in the sewing industry in Japan, developing offshore production remains the more advantageous option in the long term.
This issue was produced with the assistance of the Osaka Branch of Senken Shimbun Inc.
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