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Fender Japan

#21
mr.mow said:
Fender Japan and fender are different companies, think of fender Japan as a company licensing the name and respective shapes for use locally.
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Not sure you are 100% correct about that. From Wikipedia:

Fender Japan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fender Japan is the Japanese division of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

BassHappy
 
#26
As I understand it, Fender Japan is a different company. One that Fender USA contracts some of it's manufacturing out to (US Aerodyne, Sting P, Geddy, among other more common basses), but that also has rights to produce instruments unique to their own market and that they are not allowed to export to the US. These are the models that most people are drooling over, as they are not like most of the models we see over here.

I have 2 non-export Aerodyne's that someone privately brought over at some point, by ebay or ishibashi or whatever. I love them, but I happen to feel more comfortable on MIJ necks for some reason, as I'm also quite fond of a 90s Fotoflame P that I have, as well as a Power Jazz Special. They all have 7.25" radius Jazz necks aside from the P, which is 1.625" but thinner front-to-back than most Precisions I've had experience with - so it's very comfortable and fast in the smaller hands of a guy who's 5'7. The fact that Japanese are often shorter than westerners might factor into their engineering somewhat - not sure - but I'm a big fan of Fender Japan after never really caring for Fender style basses at all.
 
#27
Can't speak for the non-export stuff (although the look great), but Fender Japan's export stuff has been great. I've had four Jaguars, a FSR 66 RI, Steve Harris and 75 PJ. Fit and finish were perfect on all of them. I would not hesitate to buy a non-export model sight unseen.
 
#30
US Fender will sneak some in as FSR's on occasion. The problem is MIJ used to be much less expensive than MIA but with current exchange rates they are pretty close. That doesn't make a lot of sense to Fender or the customer, well it makes sense if you want one of the super sweet MIJ models we can;t have here.
I still have the last FSR's
153796.jpg
 
#31
bass JB HO.jpg

Picked this one up on eBay recently. Exceptional fit and finish. It has '75 reissue pups in it and sounds great, a little deeper and not quite as midrangey as a typical jazz, but very nice and even throughout the neck. The tuners are cheap, the bridge ok, but the attention to detail on it is better than the other two Fender USA Jazz's I have owned.
 
#32
Mosfed said:
Man why does Fender japan seem to make all the coolest basses coming out of Fender right now. Bound jazz basses, thinline jazz, koa precisions, whale blue quilt basses, everything.
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Because nobody in the US (yes, I'm exaggerating) wants anything but P and J MIAs. All the basses I have from Japan are awesome. Cool designs, great build quality, and fair prices. Find a friend in Japan or someone that works at FMIC (and get 50% off to boot). :)
 
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#37
BassHappy said:
I am curious - the source for your "understanding" is?
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Most of my "understanding" comes from a book called "The History of the Fender Bass". I'm at my office now and don't have access to it, but it led me to do more research online and all that info is still out there (see links below).

I called it a "different company" because it was never wholly owned by Fender (as most would assume). Since 1982, Fender USA has been the primary OEM customer of Fender Japan - a legally separate company from Fender USA. Fender Japan contracted the manufacturing to Fujigen early on, then expanded to include other factories in the 90s. MIJ applies to anything made at Fujigen - with it's heydey from 1985-1994 (?) - while CIJ applies to parts or models that are contracted out to other factories.

It's a fairly widely known fact that the Japanese were building exceptional knockoffs at the same time as US quality was going into the tank. The director of Fender (under CBS at the time, 1982) visited several of the factories doing knockoffs with the intent of sourcing their own Japanese made instruments to compete with them. He was so impressed with the factory that was doing the high quality Greco models (Fujigen Gakki), that they came to arrange a joint venture whereby Fujigen would produce "Fender Japan" instruments and their local partners would be their 2 main distributors; Yamano Music and Kanda Shokai,. Fender owned 38% of the original company, but details aren't clear on the legalities of the relationship after the CBS sale. It appears that the "Fender Japan" of today (and likely since 85) is owned by Yamano Music and Kanda Shokai, who handle their domestic market as well as the contract manufacturing relationship with Fender USA.

When CBS decided to bail on Fender in 84, Yamano loaned money to the group that bought Fender out from under CBS and when FMIC was founded in 1985, it couldn't possibly have owned Fender Japan since money was borrowed from Yamano to buy the rights to the name, the patents, etc... It's likely that part of the "deal" to the 1985 investors included some sort of lifetime brand/licensing arrangement that allows Fender Japan to do what it does in terms of custom models and such as long as the USA market was out-of-bounds.

Yamano to this day still owns a piece of FMIC and its director was inducted into the Fender HOF the same year James Jamerson was.

http://www.music-trade.co.jp/Fenderjapanserial.html
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http://www.guitaristsource.com/guitars/fender-history.shtml#cbsYears
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Japan
 
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