Fender mij cij and the Tokai gakki part

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Confusing. Can you tell a Dyna CIJ from a Tokai CIJ?

And were there Tokais thought to be made in Corona? And how to I.d. those?
 
Friend of mine has a mij cij Fender strat, ser# traced to Dyna using the serial number decoder website.
 
I’m looking and don’t see anything on the sites that says how to tell a Dyna Fender CIJ from a Tokai.

Looks like Dyna started making Fenders in 1992 and Tokai in 1997?

I did see this that again mentions Tokai building guitars that may have been represented as made in the US.

1992: …. The Dyna Gakki Corp. began making some guitars for Fender, these were the first guitars listed as "CRAFTED IN JAPAN".

Some say this was due to a contract clause with FujiGen that ONLY allowed their plant to stamp "MADE IN JAPAN" on a Fender, which seems unlikely. Others say "crafted" had a nicer ring to it than "made", and so the word change was all about marketing and preception, this seems to make solid sense.

Either way, Dyna Gakki was also a high-quality manufacturer, and these guitars are of similar quality to the ones made across town at the FujiGen Gakki plant, even though today they seem to sell for a little less and have a little less respect in the guitar community.

1997: The Tōkai Corp. now joined Dyna Gakki as the EXCLUSIVE manufacturers of Fenders made in Japan, and continued to be stamped Crafted In Japan.

Anyone who know their facts will tell you that these early Tokai Fenders are truly excellent instruments.

A fun fact here is that, when Fender announced that they were again manufacturing guitars in the US at their new Corona, CA plant, the guitars they pictured were ACTUALLY made by Tokai!


https://wgsusa.com/blog/ultimate-word-made-japan-vs-crafted-japan-fender-guitars-mij-better-cij
 
So just wondering if Dyna and Toaki have different serial numbers?

Or are there differences in routing or something along those lines?
 
From memory, the letters before the number can distinguish which factory when inputed to the ser decoding website.
 
I was wondering about that. I knew there were at least two fonts for CIJ.

Do the two fonts run concurrently?
 
Hi all, you can tell from the font of MIJ. It’s confusing but a normal font “MIJ” will be Fuji while a more black block “MIJ” or “CIJ” is Dyna, you see this im 1990/91 when Dyna helped on a short fall at Fuji and supplied necks.
 
Tokai made is there opposite. So the serial is over the “MIJ” not under. Hope that helps. Look at “T” serial MIJ decals, this is a year that both Dyna and tokai made fenders. You’ll see a few different decals. Larger fonts, the serial over the “MIJ” and Crafted.
 
Fuji font.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/atvsfm62wgi83ad/Photo%2006-07-2022%2C%2011%2052%2056.jpg?dl=0

Dyna block font (JD Japan Dyna)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yb3k5qwnr3jtjdd/Photo%2006-07-2022%2C%2011%2053%2018.jpg?dl=0

Tokai, under the serial with again a different font.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/18w4bssiywx0xy7/Photo%2006-07-2022%2C%2011%2053%2010.jpg?dl=0

Please note that tokai also made CIJ but that’s a bit more of a mind field, as it’s again font but Dyna copied the font at the time so that becomes difficult
 
CIJ tokai. Serial over the CIJ, very few examples of this.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/llu7u0cyw1gl344/Photo%2006-07-2022%2C%2012%2000%2051.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4yu945tflyd7nsg/Photo%2006-07-2022%2C%2012%2001%2025.jpg?dl=0
 
Wow. Good info! But confusing for sure.

I am going to recap what you just said with the pics on imgur so we can see them all together.

Fuji font.

Jj5aJSG.png


Dyna block font (JD Japan Dyna)

tCx2g3u.png


Tokai, under the serial with again a different font.

iBBIz7T.png


And Tokai CIJ "under the serial number".

8K1eDn2.png


5YHae0t.png
 
Just found this:

In the second half of the 1990s, Sam Sekihara, Managing Director of Fender Japan, approached Fujigen with the idea to change the "Made in Japan" decal with "Crafted in Japan" with the aim of giving a little boost to the image and setting their instruments apart from other Japanese instruments. At that time, Fender was increasing their orders to Fujigen and delays were starting to happen. The Fujigen Vice President, Mr. Ace, suggested bringing Dyna Gakki (Chino, Nagano prefecture), former Greco's manufacturer, into the picture. This happened virtually at the same time as the Fender Japan idea to change the Made in Japan decal. Not by plan or design, just by chance. For a while both Fujigen and Dyna produced the very first Crafted in Japan Fender guitars together.

Then Fujigen made the decision to leave the relationship with Fender and the production was gradually shifted to Dyna. The last Fujigen Fender instruments were made in 1997. At first Dyna couldn't immediately make 5000 instruments a month like Fujigen, so Fender USA agreed to let Tokai make a very limited number of instruments, only for sale in Japan. As soon as Dyna could match Fujigen monthly quantity, Tokai stopped all work with Fender Japan. So Tokai was only involved for a few months

Over the years there had been a gradual decline in Fender Japan's standing. Japan's guitar market had changed and Japanese were no longer immune to the demand for guitars priced below those that their own country's factories could produce. This all coincided with Fender developing the capabilities of its own factories in the USA and Mexico, which allowed it to make a wider range of instruments priced equal to the made in Japan instruments.

So FMIC made many changes to the original 1982 Fender-Japan agreement and other joint-ventures, as K.K Fender Promotion (2000) and Dyna Boeky (2005) were born. Kanda Shokai and Yamano remained Fender's Japanese distributors, each handling different sections of the product range, as mentioned in a Fender's prospectus from their abandoned IPO filed on March 8, 2012: "Following the termination of a joint venture in Japan with two of our greater than 5% stockholders and their affiliates, Kanda Shokai Co., Ltd. and Yamano Music Co., Ltd., we entered into distribution agreements with each of these entities". New agreements with these distributors would terminate on December 31, 2012, but they would be renewed automatically for successive three-year terms "if Kanda Shokai meets certain minimum purchase thresholds" and "unless either we [MIC] or Yamano fails to comply with certain specified conditions". But conditions weren't met and, on April 1, 2015, Fender took direct control of the distribution of the instruments manufactured in Japan and, at the same time, the Made in Japan Exclusive Series was presented.

In 2017 the master builder Chris Fleming was invited in Japan to monitor the production of the new Made in Japan Traditional Series born on September 13, 2017 to commemorate the thirty five years of Fender Japan. If we review the whole made in Japan era, we can note some highs and lows in production: guitars known for the quality of the woods used and were so well built as to become myth and legend for some (but too overvalued for others) were joined by others whose components were low-budget. Certainly the guitars made in Japan had supported Fender in the first difficult ears of post CBS, when the American factory wasn't still able to meet the needs of the world market, but what has happened next? Is it possible that the opening of the Ensenada factory, so close to Corona, had led Fender to believe less in the MIJ, since they were in the same price range as the Mexican guitars?


https://www.fuzzfaced.net/fender-made-in-japan-mij.html

Y4Y8XIY.png
 
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