\u201cAnalysts estimate that 20 percent of all luxury goods are sold in Japan and another 30 percent to Japanese traveling abroad \u2013 meaning Japanese buy half of all luxury goods.<\/p>\n
The Japanese love of Western luxury goods is a relatively recent phenonmenon, In the 1960s and 70s, the Japanese economy flourished, giving birth to a newly flush middle class that wanted to live a more ostentatious life. Grand homes or vast real estate holdings \u2013 generally the most blatant way to enjoy as well as exhibit one\u2019s riches \u2013 was a near impossibility in the densely populated nation of Japan, Instead, the Japanese chose to show their wealth by dressing richly, and, for the postwar generation, Western luxury items such as leather goods, silk scarves, furs and jewels were the ultimate status symbols.\u201d
\n\u2013Dana Thomas in Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"