LUCIE by NIWAKA: 14 years of bridal rings in Korea, ended by boycott and COVID

LUCIE by NIWAKA was the Korean arm of Japanese bridal jewelry house NIWAKA, which entered the Korean market in 2007. The brand sold wedding rings and bridal jewelry through its own stores, and over 14 years built a network of 14 locations across Korea — a meaningful footprint for a foreign bridal specialist in a market where domestic jewelers dominate.

Two shocks then hit the wedding-jewelry category at once. Japan's 2019 export restrictions on semiconductor materials triggered the "No Japan" boycott movement in Korea, which hit Japanese brands across retail and badly damaged the image of a Japanese bridal house. Then COVID-19 suppressed weddings themselves, collapsing demand for engagement and wedding rings.

With sales drying up from both directions, NIWAKA decided in early March 2021 to exit Korea entirely. The company announced on 4 March 2021 that it would liquidate its Korean corporation — LUCIE Korea, run locally as Niwaka Korea — and close the 14 stores, ending 14 years of operations.

The closure put the brand's Korean employees out of work, and the liquidation dissolved the subsidiary that had carried the business. NIWAKA itself continued to operate in Japan, but its Korean expansion was written off as a failed bet on a market whose politics and health crisis it could not control.