Japan ready to manufacture lab diamonds?

When lab diamonds first entered the market, the future was not very clear and not many people were optimistic about them.

On the one hand, this was because some unscrupulous people were mixing processed lab diamonds with natural diamonds for sale and profiteering, thereby damaging the reputation of lab diamonds and causing considerable trouble for practitioners and consumers.

On the other hand, there was a war of public opinion between lab diamonds and natural diamonds. From the very beginning, natural diamond producers were very hostile to lab diamonds, even accusing them of being "fake". This, coupled with the fact that the identification standards and industry system for lab diamonds were not well established at the time, made for a rather chaotic development process.

Until 2016, the International Grown Diamond Association (IGDA) was established as the world's first international non-profit organization for the lab-grown diamond industry. The main purpose is to promote the development of lab grown diamonds.

In July 2018 the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) changed the definition of a diamond to include lab grown diamonds in the broad category of diamonds. The status of lab diamonds was instantly elevated.

In December 2019, China's National Jewelry and Jade Quality Supervision and Inspection Center (NGTC) updated its "Identification and Quality Evaluation of Synthetic Diamonds", changing the Chinese name of synthetic diamonds to "实验室培育钻石/合成钻石 ".

In October 2020, the GIA, an internationally renowned diamond identification organization, has officially launched the new version of the cultivated diamond test report.

The industry has also reached a consensus that the trend is for lab diamonds to enter the market. Lab diamonds are not a substitute for natural diamonds, and will eventually find their own way of development. At this stage, it is no longer an insignificant supporting actor, but has grown into a leading actor who can sing independently.

SEKI DIAMOND

The fact that Japan has started to manufacture lab diamonds is definitely not a surprising thing, after all, SEKI's CVD diamond reactor is not generally famous (the picture below). Japanese consumers have a high level of acceptance of diamonds and have known diamonds for a long time (Japan was one of the first countries targeted by De Beers in its generic marketing), so with the spread of the concept of sustainability, the increase in the number of independent women, and the deepening of the concept of "self-pleasing consumption," it is only a matter of time before lab diamonds are produced and become popular in Japan. sooner or later.

Back in September 2018, an obscure report appeared on the Internet about Pure Diamond (株式会社 ピュアダイヤモンド) becoming Japan's first gem-quality cultivated diamond producer, with an annual production capacity of around 24,000 carats. Since the social fervor for lab diamonds was not as high as it is now, the news was quickly submerged in the internet. But fortunately, the internet has a memory, so interested parties can search for themselves.

Pure Diamond's official FB page has been offline since July 2012.

From what I could find, JGDA currently has only 17 member companies, 10 of which are in the Tokyo metropolitan area, although it seems that most of the business is mainly sales. Of course, these 17 companies include some large (listed) retail companies like JTC, as well as processing plants like B.L.C.

In any case, it is understandable that Japan is interested in developing manufacturing (mainly CVD) at a time when diamond cultivation is flourishing.

Diamond is called diamond, and the discovery by French chemist Lavoisier at the end of the 18th century that diamond is a single crystal composed of carbon formed at high pressure and temperature deep in the earth provided the theoretical basis for the cultivation of diamond technology in the future.

In 1952, William Iverso, a scientist at the Federal Silicon Carbide Corporation, used chemical vapor deposition (CVD for short) to deposit carbon containing gases on diamond seed crystals, which gradually accumulate and harden to form diamonds. From the end of the 18th century to 2021, from the emergence of CVD and HPHT technology to the official entry of lab diamonds into the jewelry field, lab diamonds have developed for only a little over a hundred years, and it is undoubtedly the newcomer in the jewelry world compared to natural diamonds and other gemstones.