Those little gold stickers

[mopar_guy]

Remember that Japanese industry was damaged extensively during WW II. After the war was over the US government gave assistance to the Japanese and the goods that were imported by the US helped to restart the Japanese economy. A lot of these items were of low quality and price, but from the perspective of the Japanese manufacturers, that was what Americans wanted to buy. When the terms "Made in Japan" and "cheep" became synonyms, Japanese companies steadily worked to raise the quality of their products. The JCII program was a further effort to combat against the impression that Japanese products were inferior.

[Ian Grant]

Yes you're right Dan, my first memories of cameras were all British or German in the mid 1950's. Esign Ful-Vue's, Kodak Bantams, Brownie 127's etc. The first serious camera I remember was a Contarex belonging to one of my teachers in the early 1960's. So no exposure to Japanese goods at all until my teens.

It must have been about 1965 before I first saw a Japanese camera, a Yashica Lynx.

There's a very interesting 1950 article by H,S.Newcombe (a camera dealer/shop owner) who wrote books on "The Miniature Camera" as well as magazine articles complaining that he had almost no new cameras available to sell through his shop because of Import restrictions, those were only slowly lifted during the 50's and quotas abandoned in the 1960's which heralded the mass import of by then high quality Japanese cameras.

Newcombe complained about the poor quality of most British cameras 1949/50, which was prior to the release of the Reid (Leica copy) MPP (Linhof & Rolleflex/cord copies).

Ian

[perkeleellinen]

In order to help export sales the government set up Japan Camera Inspection Institute to improve the quality of cameras exported from Japan. Simply idea, due I think, to W. E. Deming. [...]
This was a smart implementation of statistical quality control and is one of the reasons that the Japanese camera industry drove most of their European competitors out of business.

Thanks for the reply, Dan. I used to work as a statistical process control engineer and I knew Deming did much to improve Japan's quality control but never thought of how that impacted the camera industry. When we used to train the shop floor guys we would compare the Japanese motorbike industry to the British.

[Francis in VT]

My memory on the JCII sticker is what Dan Fromm stated, an attempt to boost the quality. It is a shame that people in the banking industry weren't made aware of. Around 1978 as the manager of a retail photo store I went to an auction of a studio/store. I was sent a listing of the lenses and equipment. It was a strange list because it was compiled by bank personnel. The numbers on the lenses were there but no name, just the JCII sticker. I made a phone call and explained the problem. The bankers were happy.

[Newt_on_Swings]

I studied this in my business classes, one of my professors actually went to Japan to help them with best practices and quality management. Very interesting to now understand how it tied into JCII. I love apug.

[Dan Fromm]

I studied this in my business classes, one of my professors actually went to Japan to help them with best practices and quality management. Very interesting to now understand how it tied into JCII. I love apug.

"APUG" didn't answer the question, individuals did. The best APUG did for for the original poster (and perhaps you) was provide a place for the original poster to ask a question.

[Peter Simpson]

Goo Gone is a citrus de-greaser cut with a glycerine.

Far better is a product called Citra Solv. This stuff dies wonders on old foam seals.

I looked up the MSDS for Goo Gone, and it's 95% deodorized Kerosene. The citrus is there to make it smell nice. MSDS: http://www.googone.com/c.983960/site...goo%20gone.pdf

Citra-Solv, I agree, is great stuff, and *its* MSDS indicates that it's 90% d-Limonene, citrus solvent: http://www.greenhome.com/products/ms...citrasolve.pdf

[M.A.Longmore]

I love apug.

.
I Love APUG !

Ron
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[Roger Thoms]

I looked up the MSDS for Goo Gone, and it's 95% deodorized Kerosene. The citrus is there to make it smell nice. MSDS: http://www.googone.com/c.983960/site...goo%20gone.pdf

Citra-Solv, I agree, is great stuff, and *its* MSDS indicates that it's 90% d-Limonene, citrus solvent: http://www.greenhome.com/products/ms...citrasolve.pdf

Another citrus based label remover is De-Solv-it, which I've used for many years. I used to have to order it from a video supply company, now Ace hardware carries it.

Roger