Excluding one segment that stands alone as a finisher of high quality & top end cotton fabrics, Japan's cotton textile industry has been sharply sinking over the past several years.

With only 10.5 percent decrease from the levels of previous year, woven fabric imports reached 505.876 million square metres in 2004.

Since January to September woven cotton imports reach 370.85 million square metre equivalents, import demand has remained stable in 2005. This demand shows 0.3 percent year-on-year growth.

Japan is playing role of both importer of woven cotton fabric to finish and manufacture end products for the local market, and major finisher of the top end, first-rate cotton fabrics for China, Hong Kong and even US.

China was the leading supplier of woven cotton fabrics in 2005, exporting 75.86 percent of all imports.

Imports from China reached 284.924 million square metres from January to September, registering 76.83 percent of all imports; however, exports of woven cotton fabric from Japan to China also recorded 123.968 million square meters during the same period.

A part of these supplies was top end cotton denim fabric with special finishes that produce jeans with retail price at 250 to 300 U.S. dollars per pair.

With imports of 38.699 million square meters, Indonesia ranked the second largest supplier. This figure mentions the imports between January and September.

Pakistan, Malaysia, Italy, Thailand, Uzbekistan, India and South Korea were the other leading exporters.

Fibre2fashion.com