[captaintacos]

Sadly, it is almost unheard of here in Japan and I am 99.999% sure it is the same in most of Asia (the real market for diamonds and luxury brands nowadays).

Just a couple weeks ago I was at lunch with my Japanese coworkers and the conversation topic went to one of them thinking on whether to buy a diamond ring to his wife as an anniversary gift.

I told him to better stay away from diamonds, and mentioned the diamond situation (pretty much the contents of the article) and not only not any of them had ever heard about it (despite most of them having graduated from top public and private Japanese universities), but also I ended up getting from all of them the most incredulous and distrustful looks I had ever been given in all my years in Japan.

A fundamentalist vegan urging them to immediately abandon sushi and seek redemption in the purity of soy beans would had been more warmly welcomed to discussion than my comment.

[andyjsong]

well... it does take awhile for foreign countries to adopt white man's guilt or more broadly music in general. I hear most Europeans/South Americans have not heard of Gangnam Style, I bet there will be a second wave in a month from our Euro/Latin friends.