Japan has long been a tough nut to crack for Indian garment exporters. Despite duty-free access, decades of manufacturing experience and a vast apparel industry, India still holds barely 1% of Japan’s garment import market. Japan imports around US $23 billion worth of garments a year, while Indian garment exports to the country were only about US$234.5 million in 2024. The gap is striking.
The challenge, therefore, is not access or manufacturing capacity, but meeting the Japanese market’s stringent requirements. Japan’s high standards for quality, product specifications, compliance and execution, while delivering products that are closely aligned with what the market demands.
Yet, there are signs that the opportunity is opening up. Japanese companies, including Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing, have shown renewed interest in increasing sourcing from India and expanding investment in the country. The opportunity is clearly growing. The bigger question is whether Indian factories can convert that interest into sustained apparel business.
Some already have. Jaipur-based Fashion Images Overseas and Kanhaiyalal Kalyanmal (KK House) have been supplying the Japanese market for decades, producing everything from lightweight shirts, blouses and dresses to skirts, trousers, jumpsuits and jackets. Their experience offers a closer look at what Indian factories are actually making for Japan, the fabrics and constructions they are working with, and the level of precision and compliance required to compete in the market.
The Garments That Make the Cut
“Japan has been a very important market for us because garments can often appear clean, understated and effortless, while the development, construction and finishing standards behind them are extremely demanding,” said Aseem Singla, Founder and President, Fashion Images Overseas (FIO), which is working with Japanese buyers since 1995.
FIO manufactures shirts, blouses, woven tops, dresses, skirts, trousers, shorts, jumpsuits, lightweight jackets, overshirts and coordinated sets, with extensive work in linen tops, linen-blend garments and coordinated shirt-and-bottom sets. The company caters to both commercial fashion programmes and more fashion-driven collections for quality-conscious Japanese brands, handling both low and high MOQs.
Similarly, Kanhaiyalal Kalyanmal (KK House), which has exported women’s wovens and nets to Japan since 1969, manufactures a range of women’s garments, including two- and three-tiered dresses, panel skirts, cotton jacquard and dobby blouses, and half-Schiffli and half-solid tops.
“Our standard MOQ is around 800 pieces for solids and 1,000 pieces for prints,” said Siddhartha Mittal, Partner, Kanhaiyalal Kalyanmal (KK House).
Meeting Japan’s Fabric Demands
The product may start with a garment specification, but for Japanese buyers, much of the outcome depends on getting the fabric right. Selection goes beyond fibre composition or GSM, with hand-feel, drape, transparency, texture, softness, wrinkle behaviour, colour appearance and performance after stitching and finishing all coming into consideration.
For FIO, lightweight cottons remain an important part of the Japanese business. “Two constructions we use very regularly are 92 × 80 cotton voile and 60s cotton cambric, both of which are suitable for lightweight shirts, blouses, dresses and other summer products,” said Singla.
For Kanhaiyalal Kalyanmal (KK House), rayon and cotton are the major fibres, along with a wide range of blends. These include rayon-cotton, poly-cotton, cotton-flax and 100% cotton jacquards, while rayon is used in constructions such as slub, flax, sheeting and dobby. Polyester has also gained ground in recent years, with Japanese buyers increasingly looking for polyester blends.
The wider fabric mix also includes viscose, linen and linen blends, lyocell and lyocell blends, polyester and nylon blends, and blended woven constructions.
The fabric mix also differs from what manufacturers typically produce for other markets. “A maximum of light fabrics, such as 60-micron rayon sheeting, are exported to Japan,” said Mittal. He also highlighted the extensive use of “Cool Touch” fabrics. According to him, Jaipur’s Japan business is largely focused on the Spring/Summer season, while a larger share of Japan’s autumn-winter sourcing comes from China. Lightweight and cool-touch fabrics therefore have a particular advantage in the Indian supply base for summer products.
Beyond the fibre mix, manufacturers also work with a range of fabric constructions and surface techniques, including yarn-dyed fabrics, dobby, jacquards, pin-tucks, cording, pinstripes, 3D Schiffli and cutwork. More complex techniques, such as detailed pin-tucks, require close control over stitch, spacing and measurements.
But selecting the right fabric is only the beginning. Once it reaches the factory, every stage has to deliver the same level of consistency.
“We also conduct extensive fabric inspections,” said Mittal. “Every single metre of fabric is checked under proper light and also in sunlight. We do not do random checking; every metre is carefully watched and supervised.”
| The technical challenge increases when lightweight fabrics with different constructions are combined in the same garment. In Schiffli-and-solid combinations, for instance, the two fabrics may undergo different embroidery, dyeing and finishing processes and can behave differently in terms of width and shrinkage. |
Getting the Feel and Finish Right
After inspection, the fabric goes through processes such as dyeing, washing, softening, silicone washing, printing and embroidery, with close control over colour, hand-feel, shrinkage, surface appearance and dimensional stability from lab dips and strike-offs through to bulk production.
Softness is particularly important for Japanese buyers, and softeners may be added during dyeing or printing to ensure the fabric retains the required hand-feel even after washing.
The technical challenge increases when lightweight fabrics with different constructions are combined in the same garment. In Schiffli-and-solid combinations, for instance, the two fabrics may undergo different embroidery, dyeing and finishing processes and can behave differently in terms of width and shrinkage. They must ultimately be dyed and matched together with no visible variation in shade. If there is a mismatch, the fabric may have to be returned for redyeing and matched again before cutting can begin. Similarly, when textured dobbies or jacquards are combined with printing and detailed garment construction, manufacturers have to control fabric hand-feel, drape, texture, dimensional stability, surface appearance, sewing quality and final measurements simultaneously.
“For certain products, buyers may also request specialised visual effects such as hammered, crushed or wrinkled finishes, where the final texture and appearance of the fabric or garment become part of the design itself,” added Singla.
Such scrutiny also extends to colour fastness. Under JIS L 0849 Type II, fabrics are tested for colour transfer by rubbing the material with a dry or wet cloth under specified conditions. The fabric is then graded from Class 1 to Class 5, with Class 5 representing the highest performance. For high-end brands and select shops, a minimum grade of 4 is generally expected.
Metal detection is another critical quality check. Kanhaiyalal Kalyanmal (KK House) uses metal-checking machines and checks every garment three times before dispatch, as even a small metal object such as a stapler pin can lead to a major claim or rejection.
Getting the Details Right
The same attention to quality extends to trims and accessories. A trim or decorative detail can’t only look good. It also needs to perform reliably during wear, washing and bulk production. Therefore, even something as small as a button, zip, tape, cord, embroidery density or thread colour may be evaluated both from a design perspective and a long-term quality perspective. Almost all materials undergo laboratory testing before being used in final garment manufacturing. Accessories are generally similar to those used in the domestic market, although some specialised items are supplied directly by buyers or sourced from China.
Mittal pointed to fabric as one of the biggest challenges in expanding India’s share of the Japanese market. “The major thing is the kind of fabrics that are being imported into Japan from other countries, such as China and Vietnam. It is very difficult for us to replicate them because of the count, construction, GSM and quality that they are providing,” said Mittal.
For India, cracking Japan may therefore depend as much on fabric capability as garment-making expertise.
