Recently, Japanese people have started performing to death again. First, let’s talk about Uniqlo, Japan’s largest clothing chain store in China. Then, when the Osaka World Expo came to seek help, they said that over reliance on China is too dangerous.

01
Uniqlo’s fitting room is very famous and served as a filming base for non mainstream short films in earlier years.
There are stores in first, second, and third tier cities in China, similar to the chain stores of Benelux over a decade ago, which have created many job opportunities.
As a Japanese company, you need to grow and strengthen in the Chinese market, no problem.
But the founder and chairman of Uniqlo, in an interview with BBC, was full of confidence that he could hold the scene, but was tricked by BBC.
Because Western media is good at digging holes in interviews, the entire article seems fair and objective, but in fact, it has planted mines at key points, changed the other party’s viewpoint, and then posed a few serious questions from a high position, inadvertently misleading the public.
This is malicious interviewing, the most effective means of public opinion in Western media.
I watched the commentary on the BBC Japanese channel, which lasted for more than 9 minutes. After a bunch of bland questions, the host suddenly asked, “Considering the environment and human rights, has the supply chain been reformed? The issue of Xinjiang cotton has become a topic of discussion in recent years. You did not answer at that time, citing political neutrality. Have you used Xinjiang cotton now? Can you give me an answer
This kind of question is bound to be wrong as soon as the interviewee speaks up. No matter how you answer it, it’s always wrong. The only way is to use objective facts to avoid and evade the question.
Specific techniques can refer to the statement of the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is truly flawless. Whether it is the BBC, CNN, Reuters, The New York Times, or other various experts, it is difficult to distort.
However, Yanai Masaru is clearly overconfident. His original Japanese words are: “I didn’t use it, but if you ask me where I used cotton, I can’t say. If we continue, it’s a political issue. Let’s stop here

He answered in Japanese, which cannot be adapted, but translating it into English or Chinese is beyond his control.
On the BBC English channel, Yanai Masamune’s words were changed to “No, we didn’t use Xinjiang cotton. The product label says where the cotton was used, which is actually too politicized. If I continue, let’s stop here
You see, by recombining a few words, it’s no longer what Yanai Masamune meant.
After it was uploaded to the Chinese internet, the keyword ‘not used’ changed to ‘not used’, who couldn’t help but go crazy?

Then, the United Daily News of Taiwan Province also got involved blindly.
The original title of the BBC was used, but the interview content was adapted with added fuel, stating that “there are even more stores in China than in Japan, and it is also the main production center of the brand.” Yanai Masamune said that although China, as the world’s second-largest economy, faces challenges, he does not plan to change this strategy (not using Xinjiang cotton from China)

After the malicious patching by Taiwanese media, may I ask if Chairman Yanai Masamune has still cleaned up?
I can’t find any clues to refute the rumor!
Perhaps Yanai has been thinking for many years and doesn’t know how Uniqlo died.
Subsequently, the BBC further hyped up and attempted to solidify the distorted content, even using this matter to dig a hole for the Chinese authorities and asking Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning for his evaluation of his words.
Mao Ning said: Cotton in Xinjiang is one of the best in the world. We hope that relevant enterprises can eliminate political pressure and negative interference, and independently make business decisions that are in line with their own interests.
Three sentences directly avoided the thunder planted by the BBC, without naming anyone, but pointed out the sinister intentions of the British and American troublemakers. The statement was clean and concise, and the viewpoint was impeccable!
But the majority of netizens are not so polite anymore, thinking to themselves, isn’t this just eating Chinese food, but also smashing Chinese pots?
Is it wrong for everyone to think so? Absolutely right!
At first, Yanai Masamune just thought that this was just a simple interview, and he would never have thought that the BBC could escalate the situation to this point. Even if he had ten thousand mouths, he couldn’t explain it clearly.
What about us? It can only defend the reputation of Xinjiang cotton, defend the dignity of Chinese people, and counter the malicious smear and distortion of Westerners!

You don’t need Xinjiang cotton, and we won’t ask anyone to buy it, including Uniqlo.
However, Yanai Masamune knew that foreign media would conduct malicious interviews, so he fell into the trap of BBC and hoped that Western traffic would expand Uniqlo’s business?

So, in our opinion, no matter how much he explains, it’s useless. He made it himself.
In our view, this is like eating Chinese food and showing loyalty to my beautiful father. Being indecisive is like eating inside out!
Uniqlo’s controlling parent company is Fast Retailing Group, which has 269 production factories in China, 75 in Vietnam, 32 in Bangladesh, 25 in Cambodia, 23 in India, 21 in Indonesia, 6 in Thailand, 3 in Malaysia, 1 each in Pakistan and the Philippines, and 19 factories in Japan.
Does it look quite large in scale?
In fact, Southeast Asian countries are all complementary to Chinese factories, and Uniqlo’s supply chain is mainly concentrated in China.
For example, when planning to produce a batch of fleece jackets, Uniqlo first buys raw materials from Japan’s Toray company, transports them to Indonesia to be spun into silk thread, and then sends them to Chinese factories for spinning, dyeing, and cutting to sew ready to wear clothing.
Uniqlo has gone through such a big circle that I almost thought China couldn’t make clothes.
The production, finished product rate, and yield rate of Chinese factories cannot be achieved by Southeast Asian countries, but Uniqlo clearly does not want to put all its eggs in China.
According to the performance released by Fast Retailing Group, the operating revenue for the fiscal year 2024, from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2024, was RMB 147.1 billion, with a profit of RMB 23.7 billion.
Among them, the revenue in China reached 32.1 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of 9.2% and a profit of 5 billion yuan, while the revenue and profit in the Hong Kong market in China have slightly declined.
Uniqlo has been expanding wildly in recent years, opening 100 new stores nationwide every year and also expanding in third tier cities. By 2023, Uniqlo found that the revenue of each store was 3% lower than in 2019.
One is the year before the epidemic, and the other is the year after the epidemic. After the economic situation changed, Uniqlo became a bit anxious.
Starting from 2023, we will not expand our stores and instead close 50 stores annually, including those that have been closed for renovation. We will then try our best to increase the sales of our operating stores.
But this is influenced by the overall environment, not just Uniqlo’s declining performance.

It seems that the Chinese market does not account for a high proportion of Uniqlo’s global revenue, but its profits are really not low!
It is understandable that there is a lot of pressure in running a business, but as the founder and chairman of Uniqlo, Yanai Motonari should focus on management. Why be used as a pawn by Europe and America?
Do you think you’ve made enough money in the Chinese market, and what’s the intention behind it?
It doesn’t matter whether Japanese companies buy Xinjiang cotton or not, but if they cooperate with foreign media hype, they have ulterior motives.
Yanai Masamune’s approach will only accelerate Uniqlo’s performance decline in China, and some closely cooperating Chinese companies will also keep a distance from them.
Once Uniqlo loses the support of its supply chain, how long can they survive?
The story has just begun, give this’ excellent ‘Japanese company some time.

02
What makes Chinese netizens even more speechless is the Osaka World Expo.
The World Expo hosted by China is very popular, and Japan thinks they can do it too.
Osaka, a major manufacturing hub in Japan, planned to make a big splash by borrowing money to build the exhibition hall. However, the sales of pre-sale tickets left Japanese people gasping for breath – they prepared 14 million tickets but only pre sold 2.62 million.
In fact, not all of these tickets were sold. More than half of them were given as gifts to schools. As for the tickets that Japanese companies “distributed and subscribed”, they did not gather a total of one million tickets.
But the commentary of “Sankei News” is incomprehensible, saying that “Osaka Wanbo’s overseas customer acquisition is in danger of relying heavily on China due to the sluggish sales of pre sold tickets and holding large-scale promotional activities in Beijing
Originally, Osaka borrowed a lot of money to build exhibition halls for the World Expo, hoping to sell tickets, stimulate tourism and consumption to make money. However, the tickets could not be sold and they were on the verge of bankruptcy.
Japanese netizens are also quite stubborn. When they see that they can’t play anymore, they curse Osaka City for being overconfident and shamelessly demand that the Japanese government allocate huge subsidies.
The area where Osaka City is located is called Kansai, which has Kansai International Airport and direct flights to China.
They thought of China and the Kansai Economic Federation organizing a visiting delegation to find connections with China. Finally, on the 27th, they met with senior Chinese officials and requested that a delegation be sent to the World Expo.
From the perspective of enterprise cooperation, organizing various enterprises to take a look may not necessarily be a bad thing.

The bad thing is that the reporters from the “Sankei News” broke their mouths. On the 27th, as soon as China agreed to help, they jumped out and started criticizing, fearing that the Osaka World Expo would not be completely cold.
Not only am I not grateful to China for solving Osaka’s urgent situation, but my words are also so unpleasant. What does it mean to be overly dependent on China?
Are you not afraid of bankruptcy? China promised to help you, but are you afraid of Japan?
Since you are unwilling, the Chinese side can cancel the itinerary of the corporate delegation at any time.
In theory, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper in Osaka should be working hard to promote Osaka. Previously, they were worried that the World Expo would not be held, but when China extended a helping hand, they jumped out again to perform “paranoid persecution”.
I neither understand nor want to understand this brain circuit.

After the report came out, some Japanese netizens started talking nonsense. He said, “Those who can travel abroad are all wealthy Chinese. If they are not sincere enough to attract tourism to such countries, the World Expo is doomed to fail… In order to brush up data, Osaka scattered money and invited poor Chinese to go to the World Expo… The money scattered is all Japanese taxes, so we have the right to demand a good inspection

This message received high praise. In his opinion, the Kansai Economic Federation ran to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and requested that China send a group of poor people to support the Osaka World Expo? Will the cost be borne by the Japanese?
The Osaka World Expo aims to do business, earn ticket money, and use connections to invite a group of poor people to Beijing. What’s the point?
Just say free admission, then Japan can also gather 14 million people on its own.
So, we don’t understand the Japanese brain circuits.
It shows that the Japanese look down upon the Chinese in their bones, without concealment.
On the one hand, we need China’s help, while on the other hand, we are closely guarded against China.
The Osaka World Expo will start on April 13, 2025, so there is still plenty of time available.
Such a great thing, let the Japanese go find his beautiful father, Oudad, and be a good dog, licking him any way they want.