WHAT THEY’LL WEAR TO THE REVOLUTION

WHAT THEY’LL WEAR TO THE REVOLUTION

-Can Uniqlo’s retail revolution revive Japan?-

Kiyotaka ISHIKAWA

Where did Uniqlo come from? No one, nor the Japanese, know because the fashion company has grown up so fast since its first big hit of a fleece jacket in 1998. Even after that, Uniqlo has never stopped to scale up its business at an incredible pace—tripled its sales over the recent decade, and now it sells $11.8 billion annually, unlike any other good-price clothing rivals. Also, Uniqlo’s workforce management style is totally different from the conventional Japan Inc.’s way. What do the CEO, Tadashi Yanai, do in the company, and will his style save Japan?

What difference dose Uniqlo make from other “fast fashion” rivals? 

Just a few numbers tell everything. Even though sales at the Gap, one of the most successful reasonable-price fashion brand, have remained almost unchanged over the past decade, Fast Retailing, Uniqlo’s parent company, have tripled to $11.8 billion. However, offering clothes at low prices and showing them at gorgeous stores are not only the reason why Uniqlo makes the difference because just a few minute’s walk from the store can take customers to similar cheap fashion stores. 

The article’s customer interview* says they are attracted by the brand’s reputation for innovative textile technology. For examples, a down coat, one of top-selling items, is responsible for chilly temperatures but compact enough to pack into a small bag. Another recent hit item is underwear made of a special fabric called Heattech, that is a thin but insulated material developed by Fast Retailing. Uniqlo’s distinctive quality is such a sense of matching engineering with design. 

How he runs the company, and why his way is sometimes unwelcome in Japan?

As the product’s quality keep Uniqlo a step ahead of the rivals, the CEO Yanai’s corporate administration make the company remarkable in the society of Japan. As always Japanese characteristic CEO does, Yanai single-handedly controls the firm’s direction and especially  focus on human resource management, saying “each one of us needs to embrace the concept of ‘change or die,’ or there will be no future for us.”

Uniqlo’s employees do not spend their entire careers at the company as usual Japanese workers do in conventional “salaryman” system, but the company is open for those overlooked by other companies, such as workers switching jobs midcareer and senior students who have experience abroad. However, a lot of employees resign their jobs in the company for working long hours, exacting standards and high stress. 

Although this labor management style is unacceptable for traditional Japanese companies that treat their labors as family, just as blaming Fast Retailing as a “black company” that mistreat workers, it is just another way of treating labors that employees are only parts and something replaceable. 

Will Uniqlo’s business structure and new corporate culture save Japan?

Uniqlo’s corporate structure is a very good opportunity for those who think about changing their careers in the middle of life, or who try to make use of their abilities and experiences abroad. The society should understand the new working style practiced by Fast Retailing, and aware that Japan Inc. is not the only way to run the economy, even if that is difficult while a majority of people still live up with the “salaryman” system.

Nevertheless, it is not that all Yanai’s proposals for reviving Japan are quite appropriate. Japanese workers, he says, “never work long hours and that’s the problem,” adding that “Japan got rich, then it got spoiled.” Actually, his statement could be corrected that “we are already too rich to work longer hours.” Japan rather came across a new life stage, than got spoiled, and it is good time for Japan Inc. to think about work-life balance. 

*Article from TIME issued May 13, 2013