Editor’s Note
This article offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Japan’s jewelry industry through an interview with Tsugu Tsuji, president of the rapidly growing KISHUN Co., Ltd. It explores the business model behind the company’s success, focusing on the trade of second-hand colored gemstones.
Tsugu Tsuji, 44, president of KISHUN Co., Ltd., who left a jewelry company in 2015 to start his own business and achieved rapid growth to an estimated annual revenue of 35 billion yen in just nine years, welcomed the interview team at “KISHUN SHOP” in Tokyo’s Okachimachi district, said to gather about 80% of Japan’s jewelry-related stores. “Our company mainly handles colored stones among jewelry. These are reused, or second-hand items like rubies, sapphires, and emeralds,” he explained. All the displayed gems are second-hand. Popular for their affordable prices, a ruby ring that would cost about 220,000 yen new is priced at 78,000 yen, and an emerald ring worth about 200,000 yen new is 61,000 yen.
While customers come daily to the purchasing counter at the Tokyo headquarters to sell their gems, there’s a secret to sourcing that allows them to sell jewelry cheaply.
Around the bubble era of the 1980s, when Japan’s economy was booming, a massive amount of jewelry was imported. About 30 years later, President Tsuji focused on gems that had become dull, chipped, and unwanted by anyone. Visiting the workshop where this refurbishment takes place, craftsmen were seen reshaping old, dirty gems. Using high-speed rotating discs, they polish away scratches and grime, restoring them to their original design or updating older designs to contemporary styles. Other tasks include setting the refurbished stones into ring mounts and meticulously securing individual diamonds onto the sides of rings. A single product is completed entirely within this workshop.
In fact, President Tsuji’s core idea is to integrate the entire process—from acquisition by appraisers to refurbishment and sales.
Recently, it’s said that mines capable of yielding gemstones have become scarce worldwide, making KISHUN’s high-quality, low-price gems incredibly popular among international jewelry buyers.
The vast amount of jewelry imported during the bubble period is estimated to be worth 100 trillion yen. The reused jewelry business is a model poised for further growth, and President Tsuji expressed confidence, “I think there’s still much more to unearth.”
The program also revealed two types of gems that currently fetch high prices, as shared by President Tsuji, and a method to tell if a gem at home is real or fake just by looking at a specific spot.
