TOKYO — Bucking the sluggish international trend, gold prices have risen in Japan to the highest level since April 2013, spurring individuals to cash in their bullion stashes.

On Thursday, gold traded at 4,636 yen ($38.71) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, up 12 yen from the previous day. That is 10% higher than a recent low in early November, though still 6% lower than a high reached in late January.

This boom of sorts in gold is unique to Japan. Yen-based gold prices hit an upturn as the currency weakened against the dollar following the Bank of Japan’s move toward additional monetary easing at the end of last October. Gold has since become a commodity of choice, and wealthy Japanese and investors that have gold bars stashed away at home or in bank safe-deposit boxes are flocking to bullion retailers to sell their holdings.

Retail traders paid 4,965 yen a gram on Thursday. In recent weeks, the price has frequently jumped above 5,000 yen, a level 400 yen higher than in early November, sending shock waves through the market.

Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo, the country’s biggest bullion retailer, says 80% of customers that walked through the doors of its flagship store in Tokyo’s posh Ginza district brought in gold to sell in January. In fact, bullion purchases that month nearly tripled from January 2014. Similarly, the figure at Tokuriki Honten, the age-old gold refining and trading company founded in 1727, more than quadrupled last month from the year-earlier level.

All the seats at the counter were often taken, said a senior executive at Tokuriki. Retail trading of gold in Japan requires that gold bars and cash be exchanged across store counters — an antiquated scene that draws those eager for a taste of the old days.

Department store operator Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings is jumping on the gold bandwagon, offering a new service, dubbed Gold Reborn, to split gold bars into smaller lots at its flagship store in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district. Under the law, gold transactions exceeding 2 million yen must be reported to the tax office. Mitsukoshi will offer the service for two weeks in March on a trial basis, charging 200 yen per gram.

Bullion-backed exchange-traded funds are also drawing interest from investors. Gold holdings at one such fund offered by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking rose to a record 38 billion yen at the end of January.