Editor’s Note
This article highlights a novel service from AFJ Co., Ltd. that transforms personal mementos—like a strand of hair or pet fur—into custom lab-grown diamonds. It represents a unique intersection of sentiment, technology, and the jewelry industry.
AFJ Co., Ltd., a company with extensive experience in the bridal jewelry sector and nationwide jewelry brand operational support, announces the launch of a new service, “Sodateru Diamond” (Cultivated Diamond). This service extracts carbon from cherished items such as a client’s own hair, pet fur, or mementos to create a one-of-a-kind lab-grown diamond.
While lab-grown diamonds are typically mass-produced in artificial environments, “Sodateru Diamond” is distinctly different. It is a next-generation personalized gem experience where carbon is extracted from each client’s entrusted item and crystallized using only that carbon. A key feature is the issuance of a “Grading Report” and a “Cultivation Certificate” for each stone, providing proof that it is indeed made from the client’s (or their loved one’s) own material.
Demand for lab-grown diamonds is rapidly expanding in Japan, particularly in the bridal sector, driven by desires for larger stones as fashion items and more affordable, freely selectable options. At the Osaka Umeda flagship store of the bridal jewelry brand “AFFLUX,” which AFJ supports, about 40% of engagement ring purchasers in October 2025 chose lab-grown diamonds. The reasons for choosing them are “rationality” and “design freedom.” For example, a 1-carat diamond that would cost over 1 million yen if natural can be purchased as a lab-grown stone for around 180,000 yen, creating a new market for “jewelry to enjoy daily.”
“Sodateru Diamond” offers a new way to imbue lab-grown diamonds with meaning, creating “memory jewelry” from life’s symbols like keepsakes, pet fur, family hair, or marriage vows.
The act of “transforming traces of life into brilliance” is resonating as a new jewelry culture.
The service offers items featuring large diamonds in white, pink, and blue. Options include loose stones (from 0.5 carats, starting at 520,000 yen tax-inclusive) and jewelry pieces like rings and necklaces. The diamonds are chemically and structurally identical to natural ones, with comparable brilliance but at about half the price (e.g., ~620,000 yen for a 1-carat “Sodateru Diamond” vs. ~1,000,000 yen for natural).
Leveraging years of expertise, AFJ proposes this new concept of growing diamonds from a part of oneself or a loved one. The company emphasizes domestic production and accessible pricing.
The flagship store will handle both natural and lab-grown diamonds to propose “diversification of choices” and “knowledge update.”
The flagship store “Secret Base” will open in Nakazakicho, Osaka, on November 29, 2025. Conceptualized as “a place to create your own gemstone with childlike pure curiosity,” it will be Japan’s first store where customers can directly compare natural and lab-grown diamonds side-by-side.
To commemorate the opening, a limited daily event will allow customers to compare natural and lab-grown diamonds (approx. 0.1 ct each) firsthand (reservation priority / fee-based / while supplies last).