Vietnam’s revenues from apparel exports to Japan during January to June grew 8.61 per cent from the same time last year. As a large trade partner of Vietnam, Japan is expanding imports for a wide range of products from Vietnam and the garment and textile industry holds huge potential. Vietnam sells shirts, suits, sportswear, children’s clothing and towels to Japan. Vietnam’s textile and garment industry is gearing toward sustainable development through balanced exports to all markets, and that includes Japan that has sound political relations with Vietnam. Many businesses have won contracts to ship products to the market by the end of this year. Besides, Japan was the first market for Vietnamese garments and textiles when the country had not joined the World Trade Organisation.

However, Japan is a market that holds strict standards for imported products. In addition exporters should be well prepared before entering the market due to its complicated distribution system and high costs of trade promotion. Japanese partners place orders for a small quantity of clothing with original designs and require shipments in a very short time. So firms must have sufficient materials to fulfill the contracts. They must improve their fashion design capacity and competitive edge.