Uniqlo boss says brand does not use Xinjiang cotton

Fast Retailing’s chief executive, Tadashi Yanai, has claimed that the company’s core brand, Uniqlo, does not use cotton sourced from China’s Xinjiang region in its products.

Yanai addressed the concern to the BBC, to which he confirmed that the company was not utilising cotton from this district, before stating: “It gets too political if I say anymore so let’s stop here.”

Xinjiang, which had initially produced around a fifth of the world’s cotton, has been at the centre of controversy in recent years after a number of investigations and reports alleged evidence of forced labour against incarcerated Uyghur Muslims and other minority groups.

While the Chinese government has adamantly denied such claims, a damning report by the United Nations published in 2022, featuring interviews with “direct or first-hand knowledge” of the situation, stated that “serious human rights violations have been committed”.

Since concerns of such alleged abuses came to light, many international brands have become subject to scrutiny regarding their dealings with manufacturers and suppliers in the region, some eventually opting to cut ties with firms based there in order to cater to consumer demand or legal restrictions taking precedence in countries like the US and UK.

Uniqlo could see China store count triple to 3,000

While other companies have spoken out against the alleged human rights issues in an attempt to distance themselves from ties to Xinjiang, Yanai has previously refrained from commenting on the matter. That is until now.

However, his recent statement could put Uniqlo at risk of a boycott from Chinese consumers, akin to the backlash that H&M faced back in 2021 when the Swedish group pledged to no longer use Xinjiang cotton in its supply chain.

China remains an important market for Fast Retailing, as underlined by Yanai to the BBC. “There are 1.4 billion people in China and we only have 900 to 1,000 stores. I think we can increase that to 3,000,” the executive said.

The country also serves as the Japanese group’s largest manufacturing hub, despite past efforts to shift to increasingly cheaper production avenues in alternative regions like Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Such attempts to lower costs come amid rising competition from ever-growing fast fashion retailers such as Shein, however, Yanai told the BBC: “I don’t think there’s a future for fast fashion.”

He continued: "They’re producing clothes without any careful consideration which you only wear for one season. That is a waste of the planet’s resources."