Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but pearls never go out of style. A strand of pearls is always appropriate. Cascading earrings create drama. Then there is the chic pearl ring, an eye-catcher, for sure.

Tokyo-based K. Mikimoto & Co., the famed purveyor of pearls, has been around for 120 years. The company was established when Kokichi Mikimoto developed the unique cultured pearl technology, and went on to distinguish itself as a luxury jeweler serving customers worldwide. Up until the 1970s, the saltwater akoya pearls were a mainstay in Japan’s export business. But in the 1990s, akoya oysters were struck by disease and perished in great numbers, sharply reducing pearl output.

Now ready to make a comeback, the industry has teamed with government and academia to come up with an innovative idea: “Cultured pearls for the 21st century.” These pearls are grown in the outer ocean as opposed to farms in the quiet inland sea. They are large, finely textured and lustrous specimens. And they are now on sale. We visited Ainoshima island in Shingu, Fukuoka Prefecture, to see where they come from.

Ainoshima is a quiet island with a population of about 320. To get there, you first need to get to Shingu, a fishing harbor about 15 kilometers north of Hakata Bay in the southern island of Kyushu. From there it is another 20-minute ferry ride.

Tucked within the small harbor is the pearl farm building. Inside the workshop we found four local women in the midst of the delicate “seeding” process, in which a small nucleus bead coupled with a piece of nacre secreting mantle tissue is carefully inserted into an incision in a live akoya oyster. The operation is performed twice a year.

One of the technicians, Kayo Hamada, 24, said: “I was born here on the island. So I deeply appreciate the company’s policy to respect the ocean environment.”

Takashi Shimizu, 64, deputy director of the farm, said: “The younger generation is sensitive about the environment and ecology. I think they take pride in their work here.”

Grown in waters off the outer coasts of Japan, the “new generation” cultured pearls have a distinct “orient,” or play of light penetrating the surface, and a unique depth of color. They have also inspired a new line of Mikimoto jewelry: pendants featuring rare over-size pearls that measure over 10 mm give off a velvety glow; strands of pearls composed of fine concentric layers make for a lovely necklace.

Kiyohito Nagai, 55, who heads the Mikimoto Pearl Research Institute, led the development project.

“We struggled for 13 long, hard years to get here. We finally made it,” he said, sounding relieved.

Mikimoto built the test site in Ainoshima in 2001. In 2000, a Fukuoka prefectural government researcher had discovered young akoya oysters growing naturally in the waters around Ainoshima island. The Fukuoka government, seeking a way to build up pearl cultivation into a local industry, approached academics at Kyushu University and Nagai for help.

Up until then, it was common practice to grow and farm pearls in the calm waters of the inland sea. Ainoshima lies in the outer ocean, right where two ocean currents meet, constantly stirring up the waters. Initially Nagai and the research group deemed it was impossible to cultivate pearls here. However in an ensuing study, they learned that the waters were, in fact, rich in plankton that the oysters feed on. The water temperature was also found to be perfectly suited for pearl cultivation, and there was little fear of disease. A test batch was grown, and to the team’s surprise, they were able to harvest oversize pearls, 8 to 11 mm in diameter.

The terrible experience from the 1990s, when natural Japanese akoya pearls were all but wiped out by a mysterious disease, is still fresh in Nagai’s mind. Japan’s pearl industry suffered dearly, but it has managed to survive by cross-breeding akoyas with South Sea and Chinese oysters. Nagai realized he had to find a way to protect the Japanese cultured pearl industry.

“We could not allow another die-off of natural pearl oysters,” he said.

As a way to revive the pearl industry, it was important to protect the marine environment. The first step was to limit production volume. Then in 2009 Nagai developed a zero-emission style system to recycle waste by-product, rather than dumping it into the sea. In a specially built workshop, the company turns oyster meat into compost, cosmetics and food products, while shells and incrustation matter are reborn as soil improvement agents.

Mikimoto, in cooperation with researchers at Kyushu University, also developed a 24-hour monitoring system that keeps an eye on the mollusks’ response to the environment. Named “kai-lingual,” the system studies the “language,” per se, of the oysters. It is a play on the Japanese word “kai,” which means shellfish, and “bilingual.” When the device detects a change in the seawater, such as a red tide, a suffocating algal bloom that could cause a mass die-off, it sends a distress signal via text message to the researcher’s cellphone in “kai-speak.” The text will squeal for help, “I can’t breathe!”

Pearl farming and pearl culture is one of the rare industries that originated here in Japan. At one time Japanese akoya pearls dominated the market, and women around the world coveted a string of Mikimoto pearls to wear around their necks.

“Let us utilize the local environment, while protecting it," Nagai said. "Let us produce high-quality pearls rather than going for more pearls. This is the new business model we want to propose and spread across the world.” Mikimoto’s experiment, which began in the remote island of Ainoshima, is growing into a movement to raise awareness to protect the rich marine environment.