This study examines how small weaving manufacturers in Japan managed to successfully transform their cotton kimono businesses during the phenomenon of the growing popularity of Western clothing in the 1970s, and develop within the Sanbi industrial cluster to become global leaders in the production of high-quality denim and jeans worldwide. Introduction Japanese denim companies are very small but remain competitive due to their quality, compared with Chinese, Mexican, and Turkish companies. Some of these Japanese companies have won the Premier Vision Fabrics Handle Prize, while others have created new denim fabrics, such as soft denim, for luxury brands. According to the data of the Office of Textile and Apparel (OTEXA), as a proportion of sales in 2015 the United States imported most of its blue denim fabric from Japan (28.9 percent), with China in second place (26.2 percent), and Mexico third (17.3 percent); in terms of volume, the United States imported blue denim fabric from China (36.3 percent), with Mexico in second place (24.8 percent), and Japan third (13.5 percent). How was it that Japanese denim companies developed to become such prominent leaders in the field? Most of these companies are clustered geographically, with jeans companies sitting side-by-side with dyeing, processing, and finishing factories. These clusters were originally set up for the production of Kasuri cotton kimono clusters, and only shifted into denim and jeans production in the 1970s. This study will shed light on the development process of the denim industry in Japan – focusing on the Sanbi district, the largest denim and jeans cluster – and will examine the success factors in the global market from a historical perspective using primary sources. The Westernization of Clothing One success factor is the social and culture background in Japan (Fujioka and Wubs, forthcoming). Before the Second World War most people in Japan – male and female, old and young – wore kimonos. A kimono is a traditional Japanese robe that is tied at the waist by a wide belt called an ‘obi’. It has no buttons, zippers, or any other kinds of fastening. The shape of the garment is very simple and it has little decoration. A kimono is made from many different types of fabric, including silk, cotton, wool, and linen. The type of fabric defined the kimono’s suitability for different occasions, such as a high-quality silk kimono for ceremonial events and a cotton one for casual wear. The type of fabric also reflected a person’s social position, until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. During this time only the Samurai class could wear silk kimonos, while other social classes wore cotton kimonos. After 1868 people had freedom of choice in clothing, meaning that anyone could wear silk kimonos for weddings and funerals. Although Western-style clothing had already been introduced to the upper classes by the Japanese government during the Meiji Restoration, after the Second World War, the Japanese lifestyle began to be westernized at an ever-faster pace, particularly in the area of clothing. Along with the high economic growth in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the kimono market shrank and Western fashion became a mass phenomenon in Japan. First came tailor-made clothes for upper-class and upper-middle-class customers; after this, clothing companies rapidly increased their sales, and ready-to-wear clothing soon became common among every generation and income group in the 1970s. Jeans were one example of the clothing that was introduced at this time, and a niche market formed of mainly young customers who lived in urban areas. These young consumers had first seen jeans being worn by Americans from the General Headquarters (GHQ) during the recovery period, and they soon began to identify jeans as a symbol of freedom and individuality. With the increasing demand for jeans, several jeans and denim companies were established in the 1970s to capture this niche market. Since then the denim and jeans market in Japan has developed to specialize in high-quality premium denim and jeans. The Sanbi Industrial Cluster The main factor in the success of the Japanese denim and jeans industry is the effective transformation of the whole cluster. Cotton kimonos have a variety of styles based on various dyeing and weaving methods. The ‘Kasuri’ kimono, for example, is a type of cotton kimono that is dyed with indigo, requiring great skill in dyeing and weaving; as a result, it can be very expensive, although this type of cotton kimono is still regarded as casual, everyday clothing. There were three main industrial clusters for Kasuri kimonos in Japan, namely Kurume, Iyo, and Bingo, which had been established in around 1800. Among these, Bingo became the largest cluster and produced more mass products than the others in the 1960s. While Kurume and Iyo were striving to innovate a new Kasuri fabric and shifted to the high-end market to cover the decreasing demands of kimonos, the Bingo cluster created mass products more efficiently than before. It continued to increase its sales until 1960 with the improvement of technology, although in the 1970s sales began to decrease rapidly with the huge growth in demand for Western clothing (Shinichi Choshi Hensan Iinkai, 2002). Many manufacturers therefore suffered from the introduction of the new Western clothing. Some silk kimono manufacturers were able to shift their focus to the high-end market for ceremonial occasions due to their special place in Japanese society (Hashino, 2015). However, many cotton kimono manufacturers, particularly those in the Bingo cluster who focused on mass customers, were unable to do so, because of the shrinking casual kimono market. This industrial cluster was therefore forced by changing consumer demands to transform the whole nature of its business from the production of traditional cotton Kasuri kimonos to a brand new industry. The neighboring clusters of Bingo are Bizen and Bicchu, which were also cotton kimono clusters that used Kasuri fabric. Some manufacturers in Bizen who made kimono accessories started to produce ‘tabi’ (Japanese-style socks) in 1877 and then began sewing Western-style work clothes in the 1910s. In the 1920s many manufactures in the Bizen cluster started to produce Western-style school uniforms, which became increasingly popular (Fujii et al., 2007). This was a natural transition in terms of finding different uses for the same relevant technology: from the production of cotton fabric to tabi, and from tabi to school uniforms. All these products were made for daily use, and the same cutting and sewing skills for thick textiles that were used to make tabi were directly transferable to the production of work uniforms and school uniforms; by 1937 the Bizen cluster had become the largest producer of school uniforms in Japan. However, between 1965 and 1970 the demand for school uniforms fell, because the early generation of baby boomers had passed through school, and competition within each cluster became more intensive with the emergence of newcomers. In order to manage the distribution channel and build a stable production system, large cotton-spinning companies controlled the weaving mills and sewing factories and organized retailers to maintain retail prices. This was a well-known form of management in Japan at the time called ‘Keiretsu’. As a result, those manufacturers who were not working in partnership with any large spinning manufacturers found it very difficult to secure orders, and were eventually pushed out of the industry and forced to change the nature of their business. One of these small manufacturers in Bizen was called Big John, which had been established in 1940 to produce school uniforms. After transforming its business, it started to sew the first ‘made in Japan’ jeans using imported American denim in 1967, and later using Japanese denim in 1972 (Sugiyama, 2009). Its great success encouraged many of its surrounding manufacturers to join this emerging field, which resulted in the establishment of a whole new denim and jeans industry that spread across Bizen, Bingo, and Bicchu to the point where these three districts became collectively known as ‘Sanbi’ in Japanese. The Successful Transformation of Industrial Clusters New technology for producing denim and jeans was brought to Japan from the United States. Many denim companies started out as producers of Kasuri fabric and shifted to denim production in the 1960s and 1970s, using their existing skills and technology to make this transition. Although it was a natural path to take considering the change in consumer demand and the fact that both Kasuri fabric and jeans were dyed by indigo, there were many challenges involved in adapting to this change. Rope dyeing was the biggest hurdle that these manufacturers had to face, but they managed to learn the technique by reverse engineering American-made jeans and relying on their skills in indigo dyeing and sewing thick textiles. Making a success of this transition from a cotton kimono cluster into a denim and jeans cluster was the only way that these businesses could survive the huge growth in popularity of Western clothing in Japan. This whole transformational process was led by small, lesser-known manufacturers rather than by larger ones. As one of the major businesses in the Kasuri cluster in Japan, Bingo catered for the mass market, but was hardest hit by the introduction of Western clothing, as it was more difficult for its business model to adjust to westernization. Bizen, however, managed to shift to the production of Western clothing at an early stage, focusing on uniforms – and it was the dropout factories from the uniform industry that eventually became the driving force behind the emergence of the jeans industry. The resulting success of the Japanese denim business model then spread out across the cluster, which today enjoys an enhanced competitive advantage in the global market.

Consumption of Japanese fashion goods has become increasingly polarized, with greater demand for fast-fashion products. Despite the increasing polarization of fashion in Japan, there is little to no research exploring consumers and their preferences in this new environment. In addition, few studies have inspected how consumer decision making in the new fashion environment has contributed to this polarization. To redress this gap in the literature, I examine the factors that have contributed to the polarization of fashion consumption trends in Japan. Specifically, I focus on the jeans market, which is characterized by substantial price polarization. Through our analyses, I identify which factors drive the purchasing of jeans. These factors include involvement, purchasing intention, the consumer’s satisfaction with his/her own figure, and the overall purchasing experience.

This research aims to analyze jeans possession and perceptions of jeans' fit among women in their 20s to help improve the accuracy of purchase decisions in online shopping and to provide basic data necessary to overcome limits in the fit conveyance method of online shopping malls. A sample of 149 females in their 20s was divided into two groups according to height, waist size, and interest in fashion, and several factors were analyzed: jeans possession status, the fit of purchased jeans, the reason for purchase, and the perception of jeans' fit. The results are as follows. The group with a high interest in fashion owned more skinny jeans, and there was a higher frequency of purchasing skinny jeans during the last year among those with a height of 160 cm or more, a waist size of less than 27 inches, and a high interest in fashion. Of the respondents, 92.6% accurately understood skinny fit, 51.7% understood straight fit, and 56.4% understood regular fit. There was no significant difference in the perception of skinny fit or regular fit, but straight fit was better understood by the group with a waist size of 27 inches or more. Thus, by providing accurate size information and analyzing the body shapes of consumers, online shopping malls will be able to increase customer satisfaction with pants of various fits to reduce the rate of returns.

In the 2010s, skinny jeans were trendy, and they became a must-have for young women. The styles, clothing pressure and buying behavior of skinny jeans have been studied, but the patternmaking of skinny jeans has not been researched yet. To analyze skinny jeans patterns, we grouped skinny jeans into nine brands. They were sorted into three groups: special jeans brand, trendy jeans brand, and SPA brand. This study compared skinny jeans' sizing systems, product dimensions and pattern measurements in three brand groups. The appearance and fit of skinny jeans were evaluated by random groups of people in their 20s and 30s. The sizing systems for skinny jeans were different with KS K0051, and they were shown waist girth in inches. The waist and hip circumferences were different among brand groups. In product dimensions, trendy jeans brands had a shorter crotch length, a lower crotch depth, a narrower back crotch width, and a longer inseam than the others. The measurements of skinny jeans flat patterns were significantly different in as below; front crotch depth, front crotch height, front crotch length, back crotch extension, gap between back and front crotch depth, back crotch height, back crotch length, and center back angle. In the sensory survey results, trendy jeans brands were evaluated well in the fit of the waist line, hip line, crotch line, midthigh line, outseam, inseam, side waist line, crotch length and overall fit.

The Y generation born between 1981 and 1995 is the largest consumer group in the United States. This study is to provide an insight of understanding Y generation’s decision factors of purchasing Jeans and the fit issues. This study investigated their purchasing decisions factors, including fit, cost, brand, color, and the media/internet influences. It is revealed that the Y generation might have access to the internet, but they still rely more on their peers and savvy skills to decide what they purchase. They preferred to shop from the land based retail stores rather than the internet. The fit was the most important factor of their purchasing decision, but less concerns of the brand. In this study, 87% of them chose “fit” as the reason to buy a pair of jeans. Fit problems were related to the price category. This study suggests apparel manufacturers should understand Y generation’s fit issues in the global market.

This study was conducted to investigate purchasing behavior of jeans consumers and to find differences in jeans evaluative criteria according to consumers' characteristics. Male and female university students participated in the study. Quota sampling method was used to collect the data. Data from 492 questionnaires were used for the statistical analysis. Descriptive analysis, factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, ANOVA, Duncan test, and t-test were conducted. Three factors of jeans evaluative criteria classified (i.e., external criteria, internal/aesthetic criteria, internal/quality criteria). Results indicated that most of respondents put on jeans wear more than three times per a week and 38.1% of respondents reported that they owned three to four jeans products on average. Department store was the most used place to buy jeans product with 44.2%. 27.5% of respondents spent from 50,000 won to 100,000 won on purchasing jeans. Style was the highest important jeans evaluative criterion with 36.2%, followed by fitness, price, color, condition of washing treatment. Women respondents considered aesthetic criteria and quality criteria more importantly than men did. Respondents who were on a high income and spent more than 200,000 won per a month on apparel more concerned aesthetic criteria and external criteria than the other respondents did. Results of this study provide a basis for understanding jeans consumers' purchase behavior and evaluative criteria.

This study presented a making method of jeans pattern with high fitness after deriving the appropriate shrinkage rate by material and washing process. For this purpose of this study, 6 jeans have been tested after washing finishing and we turned out appropriate shrinkage rate by evaluating the exterior of jeans and usage satisfaction. Then, a making method of jeans pattern was presented after applying the optimized shrinkage rate. According to the result of the exterior evaluation of test jeans, all 6 jeans were rated high with scores close to 3.5. Following the evaluation of satisfaction of usage by physical movement, the highest ranking was in the order of walking with normal steps, back bending 90°, chair sitting, climbing stairs, and squatting. The shrinkage rate by physical area showed the highest score in the order of pants length, waist circumference, thigh circumference, knee circumference, hem circumference, hips circumference. In addition, the shrinkage rate was higher in warp direction than weft direction after washing finishing. As for the result of addition and reduction of pattern measurements by parts of jeans, waist circumference was 2.6～5.2cm, hips circumference was 1.3～4.2cm, thigh circumference was 0.8～ 3.1cm and knee circumference was 0.7～2.5cm. Also, hem circumference was 0.5～1.8cm and pants length was 4.0～6.2cm. That is, this results showed a wide range of addition and reduction according to material and washing finishing.

The purpose of this studyis to conduce the survey of three groups of college women living in different residential districts, Seoul, Gyeonggi-do and a district, each other, analyze the actual condition of wearing blue jeans, comparative investigate actual condition in each residential district of wearing blue jeans and cognition by change of crotch length and trend through comparison of cognition on dressed blue jeans with short crotch length. By which investigation, it was intended to understand their condition and propose of blue jeans as may offer fit with short crotch length. As the result of this study, it presented college women had hipbone blue jeans in order of 2～3 and more than 4 in all of residential districts, they purchased hipbone blue jeans with crotch length in order of for middle crotch(23 ㎝) and short crotch(21㎝) commonly in all of residential districts, and they care a lot for exposing back waist and hip of hipbone blue jeans without reference to residential district. They had a bad feeling for exposure, and as an alternative to deal with this, they answered mostly on ‘wearing hipbone underwear’ or ‘wearing long upper garment’, and there was significant difference between residential districts in silhouette and exterior fitness of crotch length among important factors when wearing hipbone blue jeans.

We present the results of the linear analysis for the Parker-Jeans instability in the magnetized gas disks including the effect of cosmic-ray diffusion along the magnetic field lines. We adopted an uni-formly rotating two temperature layered disk with a horizontal magnetic fields and solved the perturbed equations numerically. Fragmentation of gases takes place and filamentary structures are formed by the growth of the instability. Nagai et al. (1998) showed that the direction of filaments being formed by the Parker-Jeans instability depends on the strength of pressure outside the unperturbed gas disk. We found that at some range of external pressures the direction of filaments is also governed by the value of the diffusion coefficient of CR along the magnetic field lines k.

Here we present a linear stability analysis and an MHD 2D model for the Parker-Jeans instability in the Galactic gaseous disk. The magnetic field is assumed parallel to a Galactic spiral arm, and the gaseous disk is modelled as a multi-component, magnetized, and isothermal gas layer. The model employs the observed vertical stratifications for the gas density and the gravitational acceleration in the Solar neighborhood, and the self-gravity of the gas is also included. By solving Poisson's equation for the gas density stratification, we determine the vertical acceleration due to self-gravity as a function of z. Subtracting it from the observed gravitational acceleration, we separate the total acceleration into self and external gravities. The linear stability analysis provides the corresponding dispersion relations. The time and length scales of the fastest growing mode of the Parker-Jeans instability are about 40 Myr and 3.3 kpc, respectively. In order to confirm the linear stability analysis, we have performed two-dimensional MHD simulations. These show that the Parker-Jeans instability under the self and external gravities evolves into a quasi-equilibrium state, creating condensations on the northern and southern sides of the plane, in an alternate manner.