“Japan’s trend-chasing office workers and ladies who lunch are giving up Louis Vuitton handbags and Chanel jackets for Zara dresses and Gap jeans, making what was a favourite market for luxury manufacturers into one of their biggest headaches.

The downturn is forcing customers in Japan to scale back purchases of luxury goods, accelerating a long-term shift in consumer attitudes, according to a report by McKinsey.

Japan became the world’s “only mass luxury market” in the 1980s and early 1990s, when Japanese consumers saw ownership of a Louis Vuitton bag or Hermes scarf as a middle-class rite of passage.

French jeweler Mauboussin gave away 5,000 tiny diamonds as part of a promotion in Tokyo on Monday. The tiny diamonds were 0.1 carat diamonds worth about $50.

Mauboussin’s flagship Japan store opened in Ginza, one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in Japan, in February.

But the store had often been empty because its name, though associated with international celebrities, isn’t widely recognized among Japanese.

Louis Vuitton recently opened their new temporary /underground/ store in Tokyo, located in the Seibu department store of Ikebukuro.

The store is completely different in terms of interior than other Vuitton spaces and takes a more raw and industrial approach.

To celebrate the opening, Louis Vuitton invited American rapper Kool Keith for a performance.

Softbank Mobile Corp. unveiled its new summer phone lineup Tuesday, including a solar model and a handset designed by Giorgio Armani.

This new handset, called the 830SC Emporio Armani Model, was specifically designed for the Japanese market.

The stylishly sleek cell phone has LED light embedded in its side spelling out the brand’s name for all to see in green, blue and red.

Toto, the company well known for its innovative toilets, showcased the new, artistic Waza Miyabi collection at the KBIS (Kitchen/Bath Industry Show) 2009.

The patterns for these toilet models are based on sho-chiku-bai, which means “pine, bamboo and plum” in Japanese.

“Each toilet is hand-painted in vivid colors with intricate detailing, creating a piece of high art for the bath space,” Toto spokeswoman Lenora Campos said.