Japanese consumers are renowned for their appetite for luxury brands, hence Georgio Armani and other high-end labels opened their largest outlets in the world in the glitzy Ginza district in Tokyo.
With the deepening recession, however, consumers are no longer willing to drop a month's salary on Louis Vuitton or Gucci bags, even if they still desire to sport them.
For some, the solution appears to be to rent coveted luxury brand items for several thousand yen a week.