Interview

The significance of export

Takisada Osaka / Tsutomu Yokota, Senior Managing Director

Takisada Osaka has handled a variety of fabrics as a leading fabric company. Seven years ago they established the Global Procurement Department and have been centering on importbusiness at that time. However, they are now strengthening their export of Japanese materials.Mr. Yokota says that, ‘We used to import a great deal from countries like Italy and Spain. But theforce of product labels (from domestic production areas) remained almost the same as that ofEuropean labels. So we thought, why not go export then if that’s the case.’ Today he continues his hard work.

Tell us about how the Global Procurement Department came to be established.
The Overseas Trading Department saw at its height a profit of about 13 billion yen, but itgradually decreased. Import also used to be much more than today, and we did businessin fashion and also textiles with Europe in the center. In particular, the use of domestically produced materials dealt by departments of our company whose core business is with domestic production areas even now surpasses 80 % , that plus further collaboration with people andbusiness overseas all played a role in the improvement of the technologies and sense of style of domestic production areas. On the other hand, we looked at foreign brands and saw that Japanese materials were being used in high-end products. What this means is that, Japanese materials are being sought after on the market. We’ve received great feedback from foreign buyers at materials shows held overseas, even though we had no idea of what would please them.

What should Japan be aiming for?
Price is a problem when it comes to exporting Japanese materials. We can’t win the price competition against such Asian forces as China or South Korea. So, we are targeting at differentusers. Quantity wise, we have experience dealing with GAP of the US, having exported about800,000 meters worth of fabric. And while the amount is little with brands like Giorgio Armaniand Phillip Lim, there is a great deal of demands for our fabrics. Japan’s triacetate materials andprocessed cotton fabrics are highly evaluated. We are to sale these overseas clients materials with high added values. And by the way, our business dealings with South Korea have further increased to about 50 million yen worth per month.