Fender Japan

Fender Japan, Ltd. was a joint venture between Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Kanda Shokai (神田商会), Yamano Gakki (山野楽器) and Fujigen Gakki of Matsumoto, Nagano Japan to produce and sell Fender-branded instruments for the Japanese market.

In Japan, Fender was also losing sales to Japanese guitar brands such as Tōkai, Greco and Fernandes.

Since Japanese labor and production costs were much lower than in the United States, Fender moved the lower-priced Fender guitar production to Japan and began negotiations with several Japanese musical instrument distributors.

Yamano is another musical instrument wholesaler/retailer with its own retail outlets and was once a part of the Orville by Gibson venture.

The Tōkai-made Fender Japan guitars made for a few months while Dyna got up to speed were not exported.

1982: Fender Japan starts production with FujiGen Gakki having the manufacturing contract.