I checked the GIA course which being more up to date, confirms that the Chinese akoya market virtually died in the storms of 2007. Pearlinterest: There are still some Lake Biwas pearls being produced, just not as much as in the heyday. Let me state my point about the use of the name Biwa this way - Biwa pearls come out of the Biwa pearly mussel. The Chinese imported a lot of Biwa pearly mussels and exported the product back to Japan, where it was sold as Biwa pearls. So, maybe it can be based on the common name of the mussel, not the place of origin. The practice so far has been to mush everything together and use words that sell pearls. You won't find Biwa pearls where better quality pearls are sold. I have never seen it used, except on eBay or in the world of bead shops. In bead shops it means bigger, fatter and more lustrous rice crispie shaped pearls than the older plicata mollusk rice crispies. In the Chinese freshwater industry, where there is no universal grading system, or in Japan where pearls from different countries get mixed together, I don't believe the nomenclature has evolved to the state of the Ceylon ruby marketing. So don't worry, the term is just a sales ploy because many shapes of pearls come out of the Biwa pearly mussels that are never called Biwa pearls. They are called by their shapes. not place of origin.