Japanese firms are scaling up investment in Vietnam’s textile and garment sector. Japan’s Matsuoka Corporation was the first to set foot in Vietnam in 2014. It mainly produces apparel items for Uniqlo to be exported back to Japan. The company has chosen Vietnam for capital injection and production expansion in recent years to take advantage of the opportunities anticipated to be brought by new-generation free trade agreements such as the EVFTA and the CPTPP.

With its first plant becoming operational in 2016, the second plant began production last August, with an annual capacity of about two million products. The company has further invested in an apparel plant complex with an annual production capacity of seven million products. By the end of this year, the complex is expected to create jobs for more than 2,500 local laborers.

With around 30 plants in operation, Sakai Amiori, another Japanese company, has opened an export apparel production plant. The plant finished construction in April 2017 and now sees stable production and exports. The influx of foreign direct investment continuing to flow into export-oriented sectors like textiles and clothing has the dual benefits of helping to boost the sector’s capacity and turning Vietnam into a global manufacturing base.