Bangladesh Ready Made Garment (RMG) Industries Current Conditions and the Challenges after the Global Financial Crisis : Focus on the Japanese Corporation's Advancement

This paper explains the current conditions of the Bangladesh Ready Made Garment (RMG) industries and the challenges they faces after the global financial crisis. It focuses on the Japanese corporation's advancement to Bangladesh and investigates why they prefer Bangladesh RMG industry to other Asian countries. This is based on a field survey which I conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh in June 2009. One of the most distinctive aspects after the financial crisis is that a changing position of China; from the largest mass production site to the largest consumer country. As a result many Japanese companies started to look for other periphery Asian countries as a new mass production site. This shift is mediated in the recent trend of Fast Fashion, ready to wear retailers. Bangladesh RMG industry has grown since 1980's as a typical case of the feminization of the labor force. Why has many global apparel corporations chosen Bangladesh as a new mass production site? My research found out that the main factor of the preference of corporations is not determined by cheap labor cost of Bangladeshi female workers but influenced by worker's, especially female worker's, high capacity of learning skills as well as highly motivated work forc