Field trip: Visiting the NIKKE Textile Innami mill in Japan

One of the best things about being an IWTO member organisation is the opportunity to meet and learn from other members around the world.

While traveling in Japan last month, Lidiya, our Program and Communications Coordinator, visited NIKKE—one of the largest textile manufacturers in the country and a fellow member of the International Wool Textile Organisation. In this article, she shares insights from her visit to the oldest of NIKKE’s mills, the Innami mill in Kakogawa.

After a scenic one-hour train ride from Osaka, I arrived in Kakogawa, a town in the Hyogo Prefecture, where NIKKE's oldest textile mill, Innami, is located. Innami stands out from the neighbouring areas with its old orange brick façades. True to its location in Japan, the site also features beautiful gardens and a small shrine.

NIKKE was founded in the late 19th century, when Western-style clothing began gaining popularity in Japan. Over the last 120 years, the company has built a reputation for producing superior quality textiles, specializing in wool suiting, school uniforms, and technical textiles used in firefighter uniforms. I received a warm welcome and was fortunate to enjoy a two-hour tour of this incredible fabric mill. Here, yarn—primarily wool or wool blends—is woven, dyed, and finished before being shipped across Japan and internationally. A fascinating fact about this mill is that it supplies fabric for more than half of all school uniforms in Japan. Thus, it’s no surprise that upon entering the weaving section of the factory, navies and plaids dominate the colour palette.

NIKKE boasts a catalog of over 7,000 shades of navy blue. Preserving these records is crucial because once a school selects a fabric for their uniform, it needs to be replicated for re-orders for around ten years, explains NIKKE’s General Manager, Mr. Akira Okada.

In the north-facing colour grading and testing room, skilled professionals carefully analyze shades with the aid of modern equipment. However, Mr. Okada and his colleagues are quick to point out that no machine can replace the sharp eyes of experienced colour graders.

The Innami mill is equipped with 44 looms and many modern machines, some Japanese-made and others imported from top manufacturers in Italy and Germany, that dye, wash, and finish freshly woven textiles while using fewer resources. An interesting fact I learned is that 100% wool fabric is dyed at a lower temperature than synthetic blends, which requires less energy.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the visit was the quality testing room, where under strict temperature and humidity control, fabric samples undergo wear and tear, abrasion, and strength tests using specialized machines and tools, some developed by NIKKE. Mr. Yasuhiro Kamo, who guided us through the testing room, also demonstrated dyed swatches that are tested for fading under UV exposure, as well as an agent that mimics sweat, applied on sample fabrics to test odour resistance. 

It was truly fascinating to see a large-volume mill producing exquisite wool fabrics meticulously tested for longevity under everyday wear conditions, bridging tradition and modern technology. I am grateful to the NIKKE team for their warm welcome, particularly to Akira Okada, Junya Morita and Tatsuya Hirao who led the tour.

We would also like to thank the IWTO for facilitating this connection.

To learn more about NIKKE Textiles, please visiting their website.