The Japanese have long been tacit devotees of the old Gucci family motto: "Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten." For years, no nation has spent more per person on luxury goods, nor been more disposed to pay the earth for a potentially deadly fishy delicacy. But something is awry in the land of mass luxury. The Japanese are finally, after an economic crisis that follows almost two decades of growing hardship, turning thrifty.

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