It’s not even perpetual.

This is a solid gold 2012 calendar made to commemorate Walt Disney’s 110th birthday. It was unveiled by a jewelry maker in Ginza, Tokyo called Ginza Tanaka.

The calendar measures 41.66 cm x 66.6 cm (about 16.3” x 26.2”) and comes in a frame. The total weight of the gold is 6 kg (about 13.2 lbs). The description doesn’t specify, but since 18K is the standard for gold jewelry in Japan (14K is not really considered to be solid gold) I’m assuming the calendar is at least 18K.

The calendar costs 60 million yen, or about US $768,250.

Also available: a small 5 gram gold calendar for 45,000 yen, a 1 gram version for 11,000 yen, and a larger gold leaf calendar for 35,000 yen. (Japanese page)

Now, I have been pondering who the heck is the intended customer for this line of gold calendars. It is sort of hard to imagine a lot of Japanese customers buying these, even if Disney fandom runs deep in Japan, since they are so ostentatious. Especially not this year, the year of repeated natural disasters (besides the earthquake and tsunami, there has been record breaking flooding too) and continuing economic woes. Besides, rich Japanese people these days do not like to flaunt their wealth anymore, unlike in the show-off 1980s.

I suspect that the primary target for these calendars are wealthy Chinese customers. Ginza is apparently a mecca for Chinese tourists with money to burn - so much so that the venerable department store Mitsukoshi remade their store to appeal more to them (a move which drew a lot of criticism and ire from their Japanese customer base).

Maybe that’s the role Japan is going to play in the near future: a shiny little playground and shopping mall for rich dilettantes from other Asian countries.