Apparel Globalization, Fast Fashion Regime and Local Struggles in the Japanese Garment Industry

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the Japanese apparel industry has faced a profound crisis under globalization and the Fast Fashion Regime. This paper focuses on the plights and struggles of the local garment sector, a manufacturing base of the domestic apparel industry, and explores its breakthrough by using commodity chain theory and conducting fieldwork in peripheral areas, mainly Kochi Prefecture. The major findings are as follows:

Lead firms’ global sourcing and the rise of Fast Fashion have had devastating effects on the domestic garment production areas. Especially, under the multi-layered subcontracting structure, peripheral areas have been dismantled by the effects of the offshore production shift due to plant closures, contract cancellations, lowering volume/fees, and shortening delivery times. Some manufacturers have relied on survival strategies such as starting overseas production and importing foreign labor. These dual globalization strategies, however, have instead increased their business vulnerability.

Under this circumstance, local garment companies have increasingly recognized the risk of OEM and found a way to break out of subcontracting. They have tried to extend their reach from the garment sector into design and marketing and have formed vertical integration of the apparel commodity chains. In addition, they have also pursued localization strategies of high value-added product development, unique market cultivation, and high-skilled labor-power reproduction. Vertical integration, as well as localization, is a new business model that has helped local companies to survive in the midst of globalization/Fast Fashion Regime, and is a crucial policy measure that state/local governments should provide.