Diamonds aren¡¯t necessarily forever. At least not in Japan, where jewelry owners are unloading unwanted jewels for cash at a record pace and shipping them off to buyers in China and India.
The appeal of gem-encrusted rings and earrings that were part of the luxury fashions of the 1980s and 1990s has faded as the population ages and the economy languishes. In a country that doesn¡¯t have any diamond mines and was the second-largest buyer of the stone less than a decade ago, exports of used diamonds are up 77 percent this year, Finance Ministry data show.
¡°I want to spend the money for traveling or dinner rather than just holding the diamond in my closet,¡± a 64-year-old housewife, who asked to be identified by her first name, Mitsuko, said after selling her two-carat diamond ring at a Komehyo Co. store in Tokyo¡¯s bustling Shinjuku district. She declined to say how much she got, except to say that it was less than what she paid 30 years ago.
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