Nishijin
90% of new kimonos and obi's are made from cheaper and imported silk (Faiola, 2006). There are now only three masters in Nishijin who can make kimonos from scratch (Faiola, 2006). Nishijin's sales have droped from $2.7 billion in 1990 to a record low of $477 million in 2005 (Faiola, 2006). in the same time period the production of kimonos dropped from 291,000 to only 87,382 garments (Faiola, 2006). All three workers are over the age of 70 and do not have an apprentice or time or energy to train one (Faiola, 2006).