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The concept of "face" in Japan is an important one. Yahoo! Japan appears very committed to maintaining its business honor in the country by footing the bill for its auction site customers who ordered but never received jewelry from a defunct company.

The Asahi Shimbun reports that Yahoo Japan Corp. is seeking to save face with its customers by reimbursing defrauded customers up to 500,000 yen ($4,300) per transaction with that particular store.

The Osaka-based jeweler folded in July, owing 95 million yen ($821,000) in debts. With plans to pursue legal action against the seller, Yahoo! said it would reimburse all transactions with the store without limit. Most bids peaked at below 200,000 yen ($1,729).

Though the company is not limiting the number of claims an individual can file, the number failed transactions is finite, topping out at 207.

If this happened stateside, it makes one wonder if such action would open Yahoo! (or eBay) up to claims by others who've been scammed. This thought occurs to TechDirt's Michael Masnick, as well.

"It's likely a very good move for loyalty purposes, but it makes you wonder if scammed users will end up feeling that they, too, are owed money after botched auctions," said Masnick.

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