Domestic towel-makers will ask the government in the near future to impose an emergency curb on towel imports from China, officials of the Japan Towel Industrial Association said Wednesday.
Alarmed by surging imports, the industry group may file the request as early as this month, the officials said.
If taken, it will be the first "safeguard" restriction Japan has invoked. Countries are permitted under World Trade Organization rules to impose import curbs when domestic industries are endangered.