COMPANY / STORY
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing — many failures and successes have brought us to where we are today.
Just as every person has a history, so does every company. Ikuta Pleats has not sailed smoothly through the years — many failures and setbacks brought us to where we are. And at every turn there were people, supporting one another: employees living their joys and struggles, sharing them, and pushing each other forward. That, we believe, is what makes Ikuta Pleats what it is.
Founder: Kanji Ikuta
Looking to the past, taking on the new without fear
STORY
1976
1989
1997
2000
2015
2020
Founder: Kanji Ikuta (current Chairman)
Ikuta Pleats Co., Ltd. is founded
Downsizing, and a fresh start
Takayuki Ikuta joins
the company
Learning,and launching a brand
Hiring young talent — and early setbacks
From present to future
How “mambo pants” sparked an interest in making clothes
How “mambo pants” sparked an interest in making clothes
My interest in clothing began with family — nearly all my relatives worked in sewing — and with mambo pants, all the rage in my third year of junior high, which I altered for friends at 200 yen a pair.
After entering the workforce I started in men’s tailoring, then worked on pleating research at Onward Kashiyama.
I kept sewing in parallel, but having seen so many people in the industry who already had wonderful sewing skills, I made up my mind to stake my future on pleats.
With that resolve, my wife and I set up here in Yoshikawa, and Ikuta Pleats began with hand-pleating work.
Ikuta Pleats Co., Ltd. is founded
Through expansion and contraction, the craft endured
After going independent, pleating orders came in steadily, and I gradually expanded into finished-garment production, delivering sewn products as well.
We moved to our current home in Yoshikawa 47 years ago, when we incorporated — back then, there was nothing around but rice fields.
After incorporating, we put more weight on sewing and began hiring, growing to as many as 80 people at the peak — even opening a second factory to run a full-scale sewing operation.
There was a stretch when expansion sent sales surging, but it didn’t last. Around 40 years ago, just before the bubble era, we were forced to downsize.
Running the company grew difficult, but by going back to earning with my own two hands, the craft I had always trusted pulled us back up. By 30 years ago, we had rebuilt to a scale where people who once worked with us could gradually return — about six employees, supported by outside sewing contractors.
Downsizing, and a fresh start
What made me consider joining: seeing my parents genuinely enjoy their work
In the late 1990s, as low-priced clothing was beginning its rise, I was studying sociology at university. I had no intention of taking over the company — I assumed I would find a job somewhere else.
But in my third year, I happened to help out with the family business. Through that experience, I began to find the apparel work genuinely enjoyable.
Watching my parents enjoy their work up close, I began to think seriously about joining Ikuta Pleats.
Above all, I had always loved making things. I started part-time, became seriously involved, and my desire to join full-time grew.
When I raised the idea with my parents, the company happened to be going through hard times. With sales struggling, they were considering selling the largest of the pleating machines. But because I decided to join, the sale was called off. That machine is still running today.
That is how I formally joined Ikuta Pleats — and had I not made the decision at that moment, I might never have come back to the company.
Takayuki Ikuta joins the company
Years of study and challenge that became lasting assets
When I joined, the average age in the company was very high — the youngest employee was in their forties. (An older team, but at the time, technically at their very best.)
I knew almost nothing about garment making at first, so while working I attended fashion school at night, spending three years studying mainly patternmaking. There I met friends with the same ambitions — an aspiring designer, an aspiring patternmaker, and me, with a factory. The three of us decided to launch a brand.
We kept it going for three years, and with our pieces carried by ten stockists, I gained real experience of “selling.” Running a brand also opened up new supply routes for fabrics and materials — which broadened the factory’s own range of work. It served us well.
The designer and I eventually took different paths, but the patternmaker still works alongside me today as an employee of Ikuta Pleats. The experience and encounters from those three years of night school and three years of running a brand remain among my most treasured assets.
Learning, and launching a brand
I took nurturing people too lightly — and it caught up with me
Around age 30, wanting to make this a company where young people would gather, I tried hiring new graduates for the first time. Through an acquaintance teaching at a vocational school, we hired two students — one as a patternmaker, one as sewing staff.
The aspiring patternmaker unfortunately left after a year, but the other stayed for ten. Around his seventh year, we were ready to bring in the next generation, and we gradually stepped up hiring.
With steady recruitment, headcount grew to 25, six of them in their twenties — 20 to 25 percent of the company.
But as the younger generation grew, the team lost cohesion, and much did not go well.
A major cause was my own shallow understanding of what it means to nurture people. Back then I assumed talent simply grows on its own — that people would push themselves without help. I said I was “respecting their independence,” but in reality it was plain neglect. It looks kind, but it is cold. In the end, of the twenty-somethings who had made up over 20% of the company, only one remained.
That experience made me realize that, as president, I had been engaging with people in the wrong way.
Hiring young talent — and early setbacks
To become a company where people say “I’m glad I joined,” I first had to change myself
The one employee who stayed had come to us all the way from Hokkaido. She stayed because she had a clear goal: to master her craft, earn the Grade 1 national skills certification, and one day return home to teach. I still vividly remember her saying, “Someday I want to teach sewing back home in Hokkaido. That’s why I want to join this company.”
With so many employees leaving, I began — for the first time, from the bottom of my heart — to want to build a company where people with aspirations like hers could say, “I’m glad I joined.” And I realized that for that to happen, I had to change myself first.
Rethinking the company and ourselves
Looking to the past, taking on the new without fear
To become a company where people could say “I’m glad I joined,” the first thing I tackled was putting into words the philosophy we had never had. It may seem obvious, but until then we had simply never treated it as important.
From there, we built a management plan. I believed a factory should adopt the practices ordinary companies use, so we built structures for moving with shared understanding and shared goals.
As my thinking deepened, it became clear that realizing it would take people. So five years ago, we overhauled our approach to hiring and began recruiting again.
Referrals from schools have declined from the old days, but by posting actively on social media, we began receiving applications from students who found us there. Today we also welcome a steady number of part-timers and vocational-school interns each year.
Look to the past; take on the new without fear. I can speak facing forward only because the people working here face the same direction with me.
From present to future
COMPANY PROFILE
Address
Head Office
137 Nakano, Yoshikawa-shi, Saitama 342-0042
Pattern Division
2-1-18-903 Meguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0063
Company name
Ikuta Pleats Co., Ltd.
Representative
Takayuki Ikuta
Founded
October 1, 1976
Capital
¥5,000,000
Invoice Registration No.
T3030002089811
Business
Women’s apparel sewing / Pleating / Pattern making / In-house brand development & sales
MACHINE LIST
CAD
Toray ACS CREACOMPO II
2 units
CAM
Kawakami Seisakusho, 1600mm
1 unit
Spreading table
4.3m
1 unit
Fusing press
HASHIMA 45cm
1 unit
Single-needle machine
20 units
Overlock machine
4 units
Edge-control machine
2 units
Serger
1 unit
Merrow (rolled-hem) machine
1 unit
Blindstitch machine
2 units
Interlock machine
3 units
Eyelet buttonholer
1 unit
Bar-tacker
1 unit
Straight buttonholer
1 unit
Steam iron
9 units
Electric iron
1 unit
Conveyor needle detector
HASHIMA
1 unit
ACCESS
Head Office: 137 Nakano, Yoshikawa-shi, Saitama 342-0042
20-min walk from Yoshikawa Station (JR Musashino Line) / or by bus from the North Exit, get off at Namazu-no-Sato Park, then a 5-min walk