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Okamoto condoms: objects of desire for Chinese tourists in Japan

Okamoto Industries' headquarters are in a disheveled grey building on a Tokyo backstreet. A poster from a long-forgotten public health campaign hangs in the front window. Display cases show-off a selection of shoes, a fake frozen fish and a roll of clingfilm. A bronze bust of the founder looms near an unstaffed reception desk.

In short, there is little to suggest Okamoto is the heart of a $1 billion company by market capitalisation with world-class materials technology, shares at a 22-year high, a transformational marketing push in the works, and a brand name synonymous throughout Asia with better sex.

But over the past eight weeks, and in defiance of the ructions on global markets, Okamoto has become one of the hottest names for investors.

Shares in the Tokyo-based company, Japan's market-dominant producer of condoms, have broken out of a trading band they occupied for more than a decade and risen by more than 120 per cent. Few companies have benefited so spectacularly, it acknowledges, from having 'Made in Japan' stamped on products.

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