- The history of costume jewelry began in 1656 with a Frenchman by the name of Jaquin who designed the world's first imitation pearls. A number of improvements have been made since then.
- Imitation pearls are a traditional art in Japan with a history of about a hundred years. They are produced mainly in Western Japan, centering around Osaka prefecture.
- Round, oval and pear-shaped holed glass beads are first put through some ten wires extending across wooden frames in adequate spacing. The wooden frames are then coated with a pearl glaze coating material called "pearl essence" and dried in a dryer. Product prices vary depending on the number of times this procedure is repeated. Normally, they are coated several times.
- Pearl essence is made from "guanine," a substance which gives fish a gold-whitish color, often adhered to the air bladder and scales of fish. In olden times, guanine was extracted from fish like scabbard, whiting, sardine, herring and the carp family, especially from scabbard fish. To produce high quality guanine, ethyl and alcohol are applied in cleansing to remove resin. These refined guanine, mixed with acetone, amyl acetate, celluloid, nitrocellulose and albumen are turned into coating to produce pearl essence. Although proteins such as albumen are indispensable in the creation of glaze to finished products, chemicals are mainly used today in making pearl essence.
- To add iris in light, thin coatings of salt-containing substances such as lead, nickel, manganese, bismuth, and silver are sometimes applied. These are called "rainbow pearls" or "iridescent pearls." Fresh water pearls have also been produced.
- The most typical imitation pearl necklace produced is a 16" clasped 3x8mm graduation type. A 3x8mm graduation type is a necklace made from pearl beads of 8mm at the center and a slightly smaller 3mm towards the ends. Also popular are those with pearl beads of the same size but not in one row or 1 strand, but in multi-layers. Lengths also vary; they are available in choker, regular, matinee, opera and rope lengths. Various other designs such as thin beads twisted several times, braided ones and woven ones are also available.
- In addition to imitation pearls, glass beads coated with gold, silver or bronze coloring, color-coated beads in gunmetal bronze, red, blue, green, brown, yellow wine red, purple and pink, and non-coated color glass beads have also been introduced. Glass beads in various designs (such as marbles) also became available, and together they are called fancy beads. These various beads were combined into various designs to make necklaces, earrings, bracelets and other imitation jewelry.
- As new product developments progressed, glass beads became replaced by plastic beads. Today, most color beads, fancy beads and normal costume jewelry are made from plastic.
- From 1950 all the way up until 1990, Japanese costume jewelry was mainly exported to western countries such as the US, Europe and Australia. Jewelry, being an item of fad, attracted buyers to Japan every fall and spring twice a year during this time. There were so many buyers from these western nations that they each owned separate production lines at one time. In those days, USD 1.00 products exported at USD 1.00@ JPY 360.- were sold in the US. in sets of 12 items (6 necklaces and 6 pairs of earrings) for JPY 600 (or about JPY 50 per piece), and USD 2.00 products for JPY 1200 (about JPY 100 per piece). Buyers arrived with new design samples gathered in the US and European countries and exclusive production lines were established upon creating new beads and designs imitating these samples. As sales performance was largely determined by design, both buyers and the Japanese makers gave serious consideration in design making.
- Such favorable exports (at peak time, more than 80% of domestic productions were exported) began declining along with the rise in labor cost and strong appreciation of the yen. As cost of labor accounts for half the expense, production areas accordingly began shifting from Japan to the cheaper countries of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea.
- Exports which accounted for 11 billion yen in 1986 dropped to 1.5 billion yen in 1995. In 1995, the top five exports were made to:
| 1. Hong Kong |
377,319,000 JPY |
| 2. U.S.A. |
267,706,000 JPY
|
3. South Arabia
|
160,820,000 JPY |
| 4. China |
60,763,000 JPY |
| 5. Denmark |
59,939,000 JPY |
(Statistics obtained from Trade Division, Ministry of Finance)
As exports result at a loss if yen is lower than JPY 150=USD 1.00, the above exports included many exclusive items with materials only found in Japan. Given the short design life cycle of one year, exports have become standardized and simple in design.
- To cope with high productivity costs and the strong appreciation of the yen, various movements have been made for the production of exclusive goods. One example is the introduction of "shell pearls" in which shell beads are used instead of glass and plastic beads. These shell beads are coated mechanically and its main beads are polished by hand to add glaze to the product. With this technological innovation, products with equivalent quality to cultured pearls can be produced at 1/3 the cost.
We once heard of an interesting experiment: Five pieces of "shell pearls" were inserted among ninety-five pieces of cultured pearls, and taken into a pawnwholesaler for inspection. The pawnwholesaler, apparently, was unable to detect the shell pearls inserted.
"Shell pearls" have been widely produced in various areas since. Perhaps, one of the most remarkable shell pearls produced are "majolica pearls" produced in Majolica, Spain. "Majolica pearls" are nominally coated 30 times, and polished by prisoners to keep costs low. Its quality is highly evaluated and sold throughout the globe today. In Japan, they are available in special sections in major department stores where necklaces are sold at a good JPY 20,000 per piece.
- As previously mentioned, production areas gradually shifted from Japan to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea along with ascending productivity costs. Given the current raise in labor costs in these countries, major production areas are now moving into China, Thailand and the Philippines. Hong Kong currently supplies plastic beads to China for production, and to facilitate the production process, glass rods with holes in them are produced, cut, coated and turned into finished products in China in a collective production method. However, as China uses a considerably larger wooden frame for coating than that of Japan, they are having trouble controlling it, thus being unable to produce fine quality pearl beads. In China, costume jewelry factories are mainly centered around the Fu Jian and Guang Dong provinces, where manufacturers from Hong Kong and Taiwan have either independently or in joint venture with Chinese firms have entered the market.
- Given the lack of any kind of superior technology or hidden know how, there is almost no chance for Japanese companies to enter the overseas market in this area, neither are there any chance of joint ventures.
- Imports from the aforementioned production areas have caused a sharp decline in domestic market prices. Such price destruction resulting from the influx of imported items are currently placing Japanese manufacturers under harsh circumstances. As large orders cannot be placed with items of fashion, retailer stores such as super-markets and mail order companies currently import their products via trading firms for risk hedging purposes.
- Imports for 1995 totalled JPY 1,480,417,000. The top five imports came from:
| 1. Austria |
1,058,200,000 JPY
|
2. Czechoslovakia
|
111,005,000 JPY |
| 3. U.S.A. |
88,482,000 JPY |
| 4. Taiwan |
56,683,000 JPY |
| 5. Germany |
41,190.000 JPY |
These imports were basically raw materials and not finished products. From Austria and Czechoslovakia, items such as imitation or semi imitation jewelry and diamond glass (limestone) were largely imported as material for domestic production. Gems not found in Japan come in from the Philippines and Thailand. Imports from the following countries are still very limited, yet expected to grow in the near future. Furthermore, imports from Vietnam are also anticipated. Figures for 1995 follow:
| 1. Hong Kong |
18,773,000 JPY
|
| 2. Korea |
5,299,000 JPY |
| 3. China |
31,558,000 JPY |
4. Philippines
|
1,971,000 JPY |
| 5. Thailand |
497,000 JPY |
(Statistics obtained from Trade Division, Ministry of Finance)
- In any case, there is no competition in production in Japan but to sell barely within the domestic market. Such unfavorable condition has forced many domestic makers out of the industry to become apartment or parking area owners or conduct side businesses.
- To survive in the industry, manufactures are left with only one of the three strategies: (a) to concentrate on limited production of high-grade products, (b) to actively challenge new product developments, or (c) to conduct domestic production and sales activities based on imports of cheap parts. There are quite a few businesses in the industry succeeded by second and third generations, and this is a relief compared to other industries lacking successors.
|
