I recently notice many of my products are not Made in Japan, and here I explain what is going on, and what JDM means.

Daiwa 04Tournament Force 3500, Made in Japan

  The products JapanTackle deal with are all JDM, Japan domestic market models, which are products sold for Japanese market, and in many cases they are specifically developed to suite the best for Japanese customers preferences. For bait casting reels, they are more tuned to cast light rigs, and has less dragging in handle turn. These are JDM many oversea customers want to obtain.

Shimano 11Biomaster C5000, Made in Malaysia

  JDM is not always Made in Japan. Some products are made in Japan, but many of them are also made outside Japan. Among JDM tackle, now in 2016, only few products, mostly high-end products are Made in Japan. Among Daiwa and Shimano proucts, MSRP$300-400 or higher products are Made in Japan. Products sold at lower are mostly made at factories outside Japan, like Thailand, Malaysia and etc. There are some exceptions, and some inexpensive products are still manufacturered in Japan. They are the successors of relatively old reels, like Daiwa Alphas SV, Alphas Air reels. The original version was Alphas 2004 model made in Japan. Daiwa still keep producing the newer Alphas models in Japan, but upper grade models released later like Zillion TW are now produced at oversea factories.

99Scorpion 1000 JDM00Curado 100B USA

  JDM has been found and valued by oversea market first by US tournament anglers. Japanese manufacturers in the past has sold modified, waterdowned brother products of its original JDM reels to export market. They modified their products to match local preferances, to employ larger handles, deeper spools and also did a lot modifications to match prices to competitors like ABU. And in many cases those export made more durable but less performing reels than its Japanese original. I saw differences in following parts between JDM and exports, at shallow spools or deep spools, decorative handles or simple handles, number of ball bearings, more expensive level winder inner materials, body frame decorations, metal star drag material or plastic, advanced brake or conventional and etc. JDM had lighter, more advanced and more reliable components. It's not fault of manufacturer's as average selling price of practical casting reels are totally different in Japan and USA for example, at $250 and $160 respectively. However, some serious anglers, specifically those participating into tournaments found they shoud invest in JDM if there were better products to make money. I saw this happend large in around 2001-2004, when Shimano started to sell Scorpion1000 and Curado100B in Japan and US respectively. Scorpion had outside adjustable centrifugal brake 4x4 SVS system, which made itself a legendary tournament secret, and later no secret any more.

  Shimano and Daiwa in recent years sell JDM and export with the same names, but there are still some differences. Fish are different, customers' preferences are different, popular tactics are different market by market, and JDM will still be the keenest in the pursuit for finesse, light rig tactics.

Hope you understand what JapanTackle stands for, and how you may benefit yourself from JDM tackle.

Best regards,

Jun Sonoda, team JapanTackle