Japanese Designers are Hopeful as Tokyo Fashion Week Begins

TOKYO — As the fashion pack barely catches its collective breath from the conclusion of the Paris shows, Tokyo Fashion Week starts today, with designers here voicing optimism despite the looming challenges of growing their small businesses and a domestic economy that continues to sputter. Future prospects look mixed. On the one hand, Japan is struggling to climb out of a recession and local consumers remain cautious about spending. On the other, tourists from elsewhere in Asia are flooding the country to take advantage of a weak yen and shop. While most Japanese designers still do the bulk of their business in their home country, the currency factor stands to boost the nation’s fashion exports. Designers are going to need all the overseas help they can get. Last week [EDS: March 9], Japan revised down its fourth-quarter GDP figures to show that the economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.5 percent in the October to December period — the initial estimate pegged growth at 2.2 percent. Meanwhile, household consumption in January fell 5.1 percent in price-adjusted real terms, indicating that consumers still have not fully recovered from last April’s historic sales tax hike. On a brighter note, consumer confidence in February

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