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Something is awry here. None of those writing on the Japan side of this debate actually mention any Japanese efforts or market positions in the blue jeans market. I suspect that someone wrote Japanese, but meant Chinese or Asian. In fact, Japan is not at all a low labor cost country. I know of what I write. I lived and worked in Japan for about 20 years. Most Japanese themselves prefer Levis. The Japanese jeans manufacturers that I have seen use marketing campaigns to imply a connection to America.

I do not see an economic competitive advantage in denim for the Japanese. In textiles, the advantage goes to China, India and S.E. Asia, not Japan. If Japanese brands were able to develop premium products with prestige and prices higher than Levis, it would be another question. However, jeans must fit right, particularly for women and Japanese women a simply differently proportioned than in America.

Without dominance of the premium market, the only way to control the market is through volume in the medium priced and low priced markets. That requires very low costs and that simply doesn't happen in textiles from Japan any longer. If Japan owned the brand names, it could out source production to low cost countries, but I do not believe that is the case. Apparently, nobody else does either.

My suggestion is to refocus this debate to where it counts: China. However, although China has the cost advantage, I don't know of any Chinese brands of jeans. Manufacturing is one thing and marketing is often quite another. Unless you own the brand, you don't control the destiny of the product. As soon as someone else is cheaper, the orders dry up. It is a dog eat dog world in contract manufacturing, particularly for relatively low tech products. Some day, China will try to develop brand name positions to retain business, but as far as I can tell that has not yet taken place much.

Learn more about this author, Robert C. Sage.
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