ITALY MEETS JAPAN - SUSTAINABILITY IN THE FASHION

Last 22nd of April, the first meeting of the conference series dedicated to relationships between Italy and Japan “Road to Osaka” was held on the CDP Business Matching platform. While waiting for the Osaka Expo next year, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti planned three days where sector experts will introduce topics related to different areas that link the two countries. Obviously, we could not miss the event “Italy meets Japan- Sustainability in the fashion”, held virtually for Italian companies of the fashion industry and in Osaka for Japanese ones.

As ambassador Gianluigi Benedetti said, Italy occupies the second place as leather goods exporter, and the sixth for clothes. In fact, Made in Italy still enchants Japanese consumer and companies which, however, are starting focusing not only on the Italian know-how, but also on the environmental sustainability topic. A tough huge challenge for this country, where the fashion industry is suffering from downward competition from products from neighbouring countries, the disposal of which is becoming an increasing problem.

Tsuyoshi Yano from Senken Shibun underlined that society is focusing more and more on the environmental thematic, re-discovering interesting resources also domestically. For examples, in order to deal with the recycling or reuse problematics of a piece of clothing, the department stores chain Daimaru Matsuzakaya launched the program “Another ADdress” experimenting different escamotages to give a new life to garments destinated for waste.

In conclusion, brands and companies that know how best to adapt to this new international fashion landscape, will find for sure positive feedback from the Land of the Rising Sun. In fact, according to a study conducted by the Politecnico di Milano, it seems that in the next years the Made in Italy’s export to Japan will increase by up to 20%. A statistic that gives hope to Italian producers and companies in the fashion sector.