Regarding the Imabari Towel Report

Our View News program broadcast on Thursday, July 2009, 7
"A miraculous recovery from an existential crisis!
Our opinion on "The Challenge of Imabari, a Towel Production Region"

A news program aired a special feature titled "Miraculous recovery from a crisis! The challenge of towel production area Imabari." The report covered "the efforts of the production area betting on recovery," and the gist of the report was very interesting and understandable, but it seemed to lack fairness in many aspects, emphasizing the superiority of the production area and products too much. It is true that several factories in Imabari produce towels of excellent quality using high-level technology. Our company also handles towels produced in Imabari. However, it is also true that towels of the same quality are produced in the Osaka area (Senshu), which produces about half of the towels produced in Japan, and that there are many factories overseas that boast excellent quality. I have to say that focusing only on Imabari without mentioning these things is very one-sided and biased.

Since towels are industrial products, there is no particular advantage to the location of the factory. High technology, excellent equipment, and thorough production management determine the quality of towels. Factories that fully meet these conditions can produce high-quality towels, both domestically and overseas. Although this report was a good opportunity to raise awareness of towels in the public, we are very concerned that it may lead to misunderstandings and disadvantages for consumers. In addition, in stores, explanations of Imabari towels include "top-quality towels that have passed our own standards," but the standards themselves are the same as the quality standards set by the inspection association as indicators and the quality standards set by large retail stores, and are considered to be quite general standards in the industry. It is not possible to say that the quality is the highest, but rather that it is appropriate to consider it as ensuring a minimum level.

Uchino would like to continue to provide customers with better towels in terms of both price and quality, regardless of where they are produced, both domestically and overseas. To that end, we want our customers to be able to choose the best towel for themselves based on accurate information.

Regarding the "Imabari Towel Report" in General

This report was about "the efforts of the production area betting on recovery", and I understand the gist of it, but I felt that it was biased overall and lacked fairness, emphasizing the superiority of the production area and the products too much. In particular, the part that emphasized only the fact that towels imported from China are "cheap", and the part that described Imabari towels as "good absorbency because they do not use fabric softener" are likely to mislead customers and lead them in the wrong direction. In addition, I was also suspicious of the fact that the report emphasized only one aspect of the absorbency standard, which is not actually that strict, by calling it the "1-second rule", which includes the exception of "accepting towels after one wash", and asserted that other aspects are "high quality" without disclosing objective information, and that it only emphasized the superiority of Imabari towels without mentioning at all the Osaka production area (Senshu), which produces about half of Japan's towels and is said to be comparable in quality to Imabari towels.

Towels are industrial products, and unlike agricultural and livestock products, the climate and environment of the production area do not generally affect their quality. In particular, in Japan, the main raw material, cotton, is almost 100% imported from cotton-producing countries, and in most cases, industrial water and groundwater are used in combination. In the Japanese towel manufacturing process, water is adjusted to certain conditions before use, so water quality does not improve quality. What determines towel quality are technology, equipment, and production management, and these are considered to be fundamentally the same regardless of where they are made. Because towels are such products, when considering "supplying high-quality products cheaply (at a reasonable price)," it is rational to produce them in a consistent manner in a place closer to the source of the raw materials and where labor costs are lower, and this is a major trend worldwide.
Currently, there are many factories producing high-quality towels for Japan and Europe in Shandong Province, China, the world's largest towel production area, as well as in India, Vietnam, Thailand, and other countries, and even several companies in Imabari have expanded into China to produce towels for Japan. It is true that several factories in Imabari use advanced technology to produce high-quality towels, but despite the facts mentioned above, this report, which gives the impression that the entire production area produces high-quality towels based on only a portion of the information, is considered to be unfair and inappropriate.

Below is the narration excerpted from actual news reports and our views on the matter.

Part about Chinese towels

Contents of the report

A wave of cheap imported towels from China has completely changed the towel market.

A story from a towel importer

• "This is where we store the towels we imported from China. We currently have 250,000 in storage. At peak times, we produce 200,000 a month."
• The imported towels collected here are sold in 700 100 yen shops across the country.
• The annual shipping volume is 2 million pieces, and the number is increasing every year.
• Meanwhile, towel production in Imabari has fallen to one-fifth of its peak, and imported towels now account for more than 80% of domestic consumption.
• Imabari's towel industry was facing a crisis of survival.

Our View

This is a misleading statement, as it makes it seem as though towels imported from China are all "low-priced products" such as those sold at 100 yen shops. It is true that a large amount of cheap towels are imported, but there are many factories in China with equipment and technology equal to or superior to those in Japan, and many high-quality products are also produced there. The reason why imported towels, such as those from China, hold an overwhelming share of domestic consumption is not simply because they are cheap, but because they are "low-priced with quality comparable to domestically produced products" and "higher quality at the same price as domestically produced products."

Quality of Imabari towels

Contents of the report

• The biggest selling point of Imabari towels is their high quality.
• In order to appeal to consumers, the company has introduced new, unique quality standards.
• One of them is the 5-second rule: if a towel does not sink within 5 seconds of being dropped into the water, it is rejected; only towels that sink within 5 seconds and are highly absorbent are certified as Imabari towels.
• Only those that pass all of the rigorous tests are given the title of Brandmark.

Our View

The "1-second rule" for Imabari towels has an exception: "If the towels do not settle within XNUMX seconds, they must settle within XNUMX seconds after one home wash." This rule is not a very strict standard. The quality standards other than the "XNUMX-second rule" are equivalent to the quality standards set by the inspection association as indicators and the quality standards set by large retail stores, and are considered to be at a fairly general level in the industry. Furthermore, the quality standards generally used by inspection associations and the industry are "guarantees of a minimum level of quality" and are not intended to indicate high quality or high performance. Since the imposed standard values ​​are equivalent to the industry standard, meeting "Imabari Towel's unique quality standards" only means "quality that at least exceeds the general minimum standard in the industry," and is not considered to be a basis for high quality.

The absorbency of Imabari towels

Contents of the report

A conversation between a customer and an Imabari Towel Shop employee

• "Um, I just touched both towels and which one feels softer?"
• "This one is softer."
• "Is this one soft?"
• "I'm going to try a little experiment. Is that okay? I'm going to drop some water here..."
• "I think there's a big difference..."
• "We then soften them with fabric softener, so what can I say? They're wrapped up like this and sold in stores, but we wanted people to use towels made from sturdy materials, so the Imabari towel mark was created..."
• The towel was soft, but it repelled water because it was treated with fabric softener.
• While fabric softener softens towel fibers, it also makes them less likely to absorb water.
• On the other hand, Imabari towels absorb water quickly and do not require fabric softener.

Our View

Although it is described as "Imabari towels that do not require fabric softener," it is said that in fact many Imabari towels do use fabric softener. It would be more appropriate to say that "some Imabari towels do not use fabric softener." In addition, industrial fabric softeners do not necessarily inhibit absorbency, and are actually required depending on the product's purpose, manufacturing process, distribution, and sales format, and are actually used in many products. Furthermore, a comparison is made with towels that use fabric softener, but when pouring water from a high position as in this case, the force of the water falling into the towel makes it appear that the towel has high absorbency even if it is somewhat less absorbent. It is considered inappropriate to express the difference in absorbency in this way.

Part about cleaning towels

Contents of the report

• At first glance, it looks like an ordinary towel. However, this is an Imabari towel that won the Good Design Award last year in recognition of its ultimate softness design.
• President Tanaka developed this towel, and he put a lot of thought into the weaving method to create a fabric that is soft and comfortable to the touch even without the use of fabric softener.
• By adjusting the length of the thread loops, called pile, on the surface of the fabric to within 0.1 mm, we have created a fine-grained fabric that is both soft and absorbent.
• In addition, we paid thorough attention to the finishing process, which has not received much attention until now.

A story from the Imabari Towel Factory

• "Can you see the steam? We turn the temperature up really high, and wash the towels carefully for a long time, spinning them around and around. This takes time, effort, and money, but it's the right way to make towels that have a nice texture and feel. After washing, they're wrinkle-free, and the pile loops themselves are soft and not crushed. That's the kind of towel that's produced."
• "Traditionally, towels were washed and dyed by being crammed tightly into what was essentially a boiler, under pressure. This is a very efficient way of doing things, but it caused problems because the important part of the towel, the loop part called the pile, was pressed down so tightly that it deteriorated the texture."
• In doing so, the fabric was subjected to strong pressure, which crushed the loops of thread called pile on the surface of the towel, causing it to wrinkle and lose its fluffiness.
• That's why we introduced a new machine.

Our View

The explanation states that "the towels have a poor texture when washed using conventional washing methods and machines, so we have introduced a new machine that improves the texture." However, in many production areas and factories, including China, this type of "new machine" has been commonly used for some time, and machines that put pressure on the fabric are not used very often. It is inappropriate to describe an unconventional washing method as "normal." It sounds as if they are spending time and effort to make the towels feel good, but this is a common process for towels and there is nothing special about it. It is true that some poor quality towels simplify this process to reduce costs, but it is unreasonable to compare them to such products.