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Japanese eyes set on Northern diamonds

Stephan Burnett
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 11/04) - A delegation of Japanese business people visited Yellowknife on Feb. 9 to discuss the possibility of strengthening trade ties between the two regions.

The Japanese economy is coming out of an economic downturn and the visiting delegation is looking for ways to get their consumers back into the diamond-buying trend, said Toshiyuki Momozowa, one of the visiting delegates.

One way in which that could happen, said Momozowa, is for the industry in Japan to begin a marketing campaign focussed on Canadian diamonds.

"We are very impressed," said Momozowa. "The two mining facilities we visited are very modern. They are working very hard to protect the environment and give a chance to aboriginal people," said Momozowa.

The meeting was held at the Canadian Forces Northern Area headquarters mess hall. The event was organized by Pierre Leblanc, the consultant/owner of Canadian Diamond Consultants.

Leblanc said Momozowa was instrumental in making the Japanese visit become a reality.

"In 2001, the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo hosted an event called the Canadian diamond debut which aimed to introduce this new and exciting Canadian industry to the second largest diamond market in the world: Japan, Leblanc said.

"At that time, we sensed a lot of interest on the part of the Japanese jewelry industry with this new source of beautiful and exotic diamonds and the possibility of a visit to Canada was briefly discussed then," said Leblanc.

Yellowknife tourism operators enthused

Raven Tours operator Bill Tait also spoke to the delegates.

"Business is relationship building," he said, noting the relationship between tourism and diamonds seems to be a natural fit.

Premier Joe Handley also put in his two cents worth in an attempt to capture the interest of the Japanese delegates.

"In a matter of only five years the Northwest Territories has made Canada the third largest diamond producer in the world, producing 12 per cent of the world's diamonds," said Handley.

The Japanese diamond market is worth $15 billion a year, said delegate chair and chair to the Japanese Jewelry Association, Kuway Ayama.