jimbossa

I was just wondering what happened to all the Japanese bike companies? I know Fuji still makes bikes, and Nishiki got bought out and decommissioned. However, there were a lot more companies; what happened to Centurion, Panasonic, Miyata, Zunow?

These companies produced fabulous bikes in the 80's and they don't seem to exist or make them now. I figured they got outsourced to Taiwan, but even Italian companies outsource today but arguably manage to maintain their brand name and essence. I would love to have seen what the Japanese would have done with carbon fibre.

unterhausen

it became uneconomic to produce bikes there once the Chinese started making decent bikes.

jimbossa

Yea, but how come the Italian bikes have survived? I can't see the Italian costs being more effective than the Japanese

repechage

I agree with that, but there are still bicycle mfgs. in Japan, but they are domestic market now, so smaller than they were before. Some of the names in the original posters list were brands not mfgs.
Kuwahara produced a lot of brands, and others under contract.
The strong yen to dollar ratio has cut out the Japanese from the USA market, even Rivendell has accepted defeat sourcing from Japan for the USA market.
Plenty of bikes in Japan, just not seen elsewhere.

repechage

I think you need to review what Made IN means in various countries. There are lots of Italian Brands, but even Bianchi well known world wide, does not produce that much in Italy any more.

noglider 

jimbossa, some names live on as contracting companies. In other words, companies like Bianchi might design bikes, but they have the bikes made in China or Taiwan. Some companies, such as Schwinn, don't exist any more except that the right to use the name has been bought as a license. As far as I know, bikes are mass produced only in China and Taiwan nowadays.

jimbossa

I can understand that.

What I am saying is that the Japanese companies don't seem to exist anymore, even in name. Maybe they are all in the domestic market, but I thought I might have heard about it overseas. I haven't seen anything passed off recently as Japanese other than Fuji. Even some companies like GIOS, Colnago and Cinelli manage to produce some bikes (mainly steel, Thank god!) in Italy. I find it weird that Shimano, a components giant managed to survive and yet not many bicycle manufacturers.

noglider 

How many bike makers were there in Japan? I don't know of many. The US importers invented a lot of names. Nishiki is one of those. Even Fuji was, as far as I know.

The only makers I can think of are/were Panasonic, Bridgestone, Kuwahara, and Tsunoda. All those other Japanese names weren't the names of Japanese companies.

Shimano doesn't make stuff in Japan any more, as far as I know. They survived because they are, by far, the biggest bike parts maker in the world. I believe they're also pretty big in their other business, fishing tackle.

5cagm

Don't forget Miyata! They also made lots of bikes for Univega.

noglider 

Yes, of course! Miyata!

robatsu

Maruishi was a Japanese company that survived up until about 2 years ago. Araya sells bikes in Japan, although I don't know where they are made.

The vast majority of bikes in Japan are department store grade bikes, it is almost as rare to see a Toei or something like that there as it is here. About a year ago when my wife was looking for a job in Japan, she had some serious talks with Trek, which is trying to introduce high end sport cycling - 5k carbon bikes, etc, to the Japanese mass market and is setting up boutique shops in a number of places in Japan.

tatfiend 

The last I knew high end Shimano components are still produced in Japan. Their lower grades and mass market componnts are produced in Singapore per what I have read.

Take a look at the Jitensha thread in the Commuting forum. A lot of used Japanese city bikes are exported to the Philippines and other asian countries and many of them look like NOTHING available here.

RobbieTunes

The worldwide exchange rate said "nyet" to the yen.
Schwinn sold. Trek began. MTB's. Road boom ended.

That's it in a nyetshell.

mkael

Nishiki is still around. But I think they are made in Taiwan. They are still a very common sight in Scandinavia. Kuwaharas exists also in some form or another.

Mass produced bicycles? I think it depends on definition what is mass produced? Also Taiwan and China has many different bike factories.

Focus bikes is German. They are exported into different countries. A very common sight in Germany. They mention not advertize they produce their bikes in Germany. Very big sortiment of mid to high end mtb , cycloross , racing etc bikes. There are other smaller? locally built names one can see often on the streets. And not forget about the comfort/commuting/modern omafiets bike market. These must be the most popular bike type by a wide margin. Where was Kettler? being made again? Of course cv or most bikeforums members are mostly into different bikes. Wasn't the biggest bike factory in the world some fully automated monstrosity making just these bikes.

How big is Fort the Czech bike manufacturer? They also produce mid to high-end bikes and export frames which are not always sold under that name. I think there are other manufacturers which also make more supermarket style bikes.

These are all bikes which I have seen around often.

RobbieTunes

Well, glad to know that competition breeds competitors, so there will always be some downward price pressure.
For the C&V road bikes, the market fluctuates, but it's pretty stable, and I don't see a stampede away from new bikes into C&V coming any time soon.

If you like DT shifters, the invention of STI shifting has made your type of bikes affordable for a long time to come.
And I like DT shifters.

kirke

Panasonic is still around and producing beautiful high quality lugged steel frames. Yellow Jersey sells their NJS track frames and a cool touring frameset with couplers.
https://www.yellowjersey.org/panak.html

Bridgestone is also still around too. I know they are making crazy carbon track frames which you can get through Business Cycles:
https://www.businesscycles.com/anchor.htm
I am sure they still make road frames, although I have not seen them in the US.

Besides all of the custom builders in the USA now, I think Japan has some of the most incredible master frame builders anywhere. Yes, they mostly just build for the professional track racers, but those NJS frames are some of the most beautiful and are built in a very traditional style.

Ex Pres 

Fuji's corporate HQ is here in PA, not Asia. Not that any bikes are built here, but the current ownership (bought)/resurrected the name from the original going-out-of-businees Japanese company.

Ha, ha. I just looked at Fuji's web site, and they've "revised" their history section to make it appear that the company never really changed. Two years ago they were making a big distinction between old Fuji and the NEW American FUJI.

IIRC this transition took place around 2001 ?

velo-orange

A lot of those brands are still active in the Japanese domestic market.
Centurion wasn't a factory, so much as a marque that has been traded and sold through so many companies and wholesaler/ distributors.
Brands like Zunow or 3Rensho were small builders, who lost interest in the craft or died. Possibly the family didn't want to continue.

balindamood

Tsunda (made Lotus and others), Bridgestone and Araya (made Centurions, Nishikis, etc.) are still around, but are not imported do to the exchange rate. Not sure about Panasonic or Fuji. Thiose company names are sometimes sold as trademarks (Masi USA, Raleigh USA as examples). Though Fuji exists corporately in the US, I do not know if they still exist in Japan as we might expect.

Chris Chicago

I had a Sekai in the early 80s. apparently they shut down in 1986.

https://www.yellowjersey.org/sekai.html

Elev12k

That Panasonic NJS frame on Yellow Jersey shows a lot resemblance with my early 90s PR-6000 in detailing. The last time I were able to visit the Japanese 'panabyc' website I discovered the frames were available in many finishes, including the 'team paint', as famous from the PR-6000s that were raced in the pro peleton in the early nineties.

Unfortunately I can't find the Panasonic POS pages anymore.

michael k

*Chokes on coffee* Wait!What???

echotraveler

did you notice the Panasonic bikes they carry are all POS?! hahahaha

Elev12k

Correction! Found again:

https://cycle.panasonic.jp/products/pos/

...and we can still order the team paint (among 1001 other designs)

nlerner

Not related to current Japanese-made bicycles, but I really like this website for looking at Japanese domestic-market bikes produced by some of the larger manufacturers:

https://comics.sakura.ne.jp/cycle/cy00e.htm

Neal