According to the monthly monitoring report released by the Cotton Industry Association, Japan’s imports of textiles and apparel totaled US$2.837 billion in August 2026, up 9.20% month-on-month; year-to-date through August, cumulative imports reached US$20.712 billion, down slightly by 1.05% year-on-year. During the same period, Japan imported US$10.198 billion worth of goods from China, an increase of US$12 million year-on-year, placing China at the top among Japan’s major sources of supply despite the overall trend. Nantong Kaiyuan International Trading Co., Ltd. stated that it will continue to consolidate this core market through flexible production scheduling and proactive quality control.
As the traditional peak season approaches, the Japanese market is showing signs of recovery. According to the monthly monitoring report released by the Cotton Industry Association, in August 2026, Japan’s imports of textiles and apparel totaled US$2.837 billion, up US$239 million month-on-month, a 9.20% increase. Year-on-year, however, imports edged down by US$14 million, a 0.49% decline. These figures indicate that, after several consecutive months of sluggish activity, Japan’s import momentum picked up noticeably in August, creating a relatively stable external environment for order fulfillment during the fourth-quarter peak season.
From a cumulative perspective, Japan’s imports of textiles and apparel totaled US$20.712 billion from January to August 2026, down US$219 million, or 1.05%, compared with the same period last year—a relatively modest decline. By source region, during this period Japan imported US$10.198 billion from China, up US$12 million year on year, placing China first among major suppliers; Vietnam accounted for US$3.443 billion, down US$172 million; the European Union recorded US$1.26 billion, down US$59 million; Cambodia registered US$1.018 billion, up US$44 million; Bangladesh reported US$895 million, down US$45 million; and Myanmar posted US$854 million, up US$49 million. Under this measurement, China’s exports to Japan have shown a slight counter‑trend increase among major sources, diverging from the overall downward trend observed in some other supplier regions over the same period.
Notably, another set of comparisons in the same report reveals the following: In August 2026, U.S. imports of textiles and apparel totaled $10.531 billion, up $655 million month-on-month, a 6.63% increase; however, cumulative imports from January to August reached $72.285 billion, down $5.09 billion year-on-year, or 6.58%. During the same period, U.S. imports from China amounted to $11.923 billion, a year-on-year decline of $3.27 billion, representing one of the more pronounced drops among major source regions. On the EU side, textile and apparel imports in July 2026 stood at $13.130 billion, up $1.163 billion month-on-month, a 9.72% increase; cumulative imports from January to July totaled $81.94 billion, down $152 million year-on-year, or 0.19%. Of this, imports from China reached $27.69 billion, up $1.66 billion compared with the same period last year. By contrast, the stability of the Japanese market stands in sharp relief against the volatility observed in the European and U.S. markets.
For companies whose core market is exports to Japan, this stability carries an even more concrete significance. Nantong Kaiyuan International Trading Co., Ltd. is an integrated industrial‑and‑trading foreign‑trade enterprise based in Nantong. Established in September 2008, it operates six business departments and a fabric department on the 11th and 12th floors of Building A, Xinqian International Plaza, No. 156 Gongnong South Road, Nantong. Its export portfolio comprises women’s wear accounting for 50%, children’s wear 40%, and men’s wear 10%; two production lines—woven and knitted—are advanced in parallel. Its downstream customer base is dominated by leading Japanese trading houses, including Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Marubeni, Toyoshima, Tamura Koma, Takisada, Adastria, Bandai, and Intertexchard. On the manufacturing side, the company relies on its own factory located in the Industrial Park of Xindian Town, Rudong County, ensuring seamless integration from fabric procurement to finished‑garment sewing.
Faced with a mixed situation—where the pace of Japanese imports is picking up but cumulative volumes remain slightly down—the company has adopted a strategy that combines rolling production scheduling with proactive quality control at key stages. On the one hand, leveraging the Fabric Department’s early‑stage analysis of raw material trends, the company stocks materials on a per‑order basis and initiates production as needed, thereby mitigating cost‑pass‑through pressures stemming from upstream price volatility. On the other hand, it has moved quality‑control checkpoints forward to two critical steps—fabric receipt and finished‑garment inspection—to prevent quality disputes from surfacing en masse at the delivery stage. For small‑batch, multi‑shipment, short‑lead‑time orders, which are favored by Japanese trading companies, the company employs an integrated industrial‑trade coordination mechanism to streamline intermediate processes, ensuring seamless end‑to‑end execution from order confirmation through shipment.
From the perspective of the regional industrial environment, Nantong’s robust industrial support infrastructure underpins the aforementioned delivery schedule. According to statistics from Nantong Customs, from January to July 2026, the city’s total foreign trade—imports and exports—reached RMB 268.69 billion, up 14.30% year on year. In July alone, imports and exports totaled RMB 46.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 30.30%, with exports reaching RMB 31.5 billion, surpassing the RMB 30 billion mark. Meanwhile, data from Haimen District show that from January to August, the district’s textile and apparel trade amounted to RMB 2.18 billion, up 20.4% year on year. Traditional industries such as home textiles and apparel have established a relatively complete supporting ecosystem through coordinated efforts across industrial clusters, platforms, and distribution channels.
Industry observers note that the combination of a limited cumulative decline in Japanese imports and a month‑over‑month rebound typically signals a gradual resumption of restocking. Nantong Kaiyuan International Trading Co., Ltd. points out that, as Japan’s overall consumption structure becomes more pragmatic, demand for lightweight, cross‑seasonal items and cost‑effective ready‑to‑wear remains relatively stable. Competition among suppliers now hinges less on price alone and more on delivery reliability and consistent quality. The company stated that it will continue to prioritize proactive fabric‑sourcing management and end-to-end quality control throughout the garment‑making process, ensuring stable, reliable deliveries to its Japanese trading‑company clients.