Crafted and japan and made in japan differneces

[EEF13]

are they the same? are any of them lower quality?

[andysharifi]

Made in Japan and Crafted in Japan are basically the same thing. I think newer guitars say the Crafted in Japan, and some people value the "Crafted in Japan" more than "Made in Japan". Ive tried both crafted and MIJ fenders, and they are the same quality. One is not better than the either.

[lp_junkie]

semantics, it's the same thing.

[doublecut]

The MIJ Fenders were made by Fujigen. The CIJ Fenders were/are made by Tokai and Dyna. Why Fender changed to CIJ when Tokai and Dyna took over from Fujigen in 1997 is a bit of a mystery. It seems that CIJ was used by any factory that wasn't Fujigen and Fujigen was the only factory to use MIJ. There are also CIJ's from around 1992/1993 that seem to be made by Dyna.

Fujigen was expanding their factories in 1992 to take on new contracts like the Orville contract so for a short time around 1992/1993 Fujigen could not make enough Fender Japan guitars so Dyna was contracted for a short time. Eventually Fujigen lost the Fender Japan contract and it was given to Tokai and also to Dyna.

The Dyna made Fender Japan models were also for the export market and the Tokai made Fender Japan guitars weren't for the export market.
Fujigen, Tokai and Dyna are all Japanese factories. Fujigen made Grecos and Ibanez's and Dyna made the Ibanez Blazers and Tokai make Tokai and others guitars as well.