A pearl can be best described as an extremely hard and rounded object which is formed within a soft tissue of a living mollusk. Only those pearls which are judged to be of highest quality are deemed fit to be used in the business of jewelry design. However, there may be varying standards among all the high quality pearls which are used for the purpose of jewelry designing. These can be classified on the basis of their luster, color, size and lack of surface flaw. Out of all these aforementioned attributes, luster of a pearl is one of the factors which play an extremely important role in determining the true standard of this gem.

There are a variety of designs available in pearls, depending upon their size and shape, such as rounded, tear drop, semi-round and button pearls. One such famous category of pearls is Akoya pearls .

Akoya pearls are original Japanese cultured pearls, which are produced by a species of a small pearl oyster that goes by the name of Pinctada fucata martensii. Hence, it is a pretty tough task to even find an Akoya pearl which measures about 10mm in size and needless to say, few of the pearls from this species which actually manage to cross this mark are considered extremely rare and invaluable. However, with the advent of latest scientific technology in the field of pearl farming, a hybrid species of this mollusk is being used in both China and Japan . Over the last few decades, these two countries which are considered to be the chief manufacturers of Akoya pearls .

This hybrid species, which are capable of producing pearls which are much larger in size than their natural counterparts, is a mix of the original Japanese species and another Chinese species which goes by the name of Pinctada chemnitzii

Although Japan has been renowned for its pearl production till now, the trend is slowly changing with China emerging as the new contender for accounting of the largest production of Akoya pearls . However, majority of the Akoya pearls produced by china are still imported to Japan for processing purposes.