was established in 1960 The Greatest Guitar Manufacturing Company in Japan
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The Greatest Guitar Manufacturing Company In Japan

FUJIGEN Factory

Half a century of passion in wooden instruments


Established in 1960, FUJIGEN has been manufacturing guitars and basses for many world famous labels for half a century. As the original manufacturer, we sign responsible for the high quality (and probably for the success) of many of the worlds most respected brands.
Today, FUJIGEN is expanding into a global market with the aim toestablish the name FUJIGEN as its original brand.
FUJIGEN claims its leadership in the world of electric guitars due to its know-how in the treatment of wood.

Overseas and global markets - becoming number 1
Overseas and global markets - becoming number 1
Overseas and global markets - becoming number 1

Overseas and global Markets / Becoming No.1

The Fujigen Instrumental Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was established in 1960.
The term Fuji refer to Japans holy Mount Fuji, it was chosen to underline the company's goal to become the world's No.1 guitar manufacturer.

At FUJIGEN we started with classical guitars manufacturing, but soon shifted to electric guitars to meet a quickly growing demand by overseas business partners, especially in the USA, where electric guitars were becoming very popular. Classical guitars remained our main product in the domestic Japanese market.

Inexperienced with this new approach of electric instruments, our craftsmen and engineers did meticulous analysis of existing guitar products and accumulated its experience and skills by continuous research. By trial and error and through a long series of tests and prototypes, we gathered substantiated experiences as our key to become one of the top guitar makers of the world.

Shipment to Yokohama Port, 1965
Shipment to Yokohama Port, 1965
FUJIGEN's logo in 1960.
FUJIGEN's logo in 1960. Mt.Fuji is surrounded by three guitars.
FUJIGEN Classical Guitar
FUJUGEN Classical guitar, headstock
FUJIGEN Classical guitar, inside detail
Classical guitar, manufactured in 1960.

Original brand "FUJI GEN GAKKI"

It was in 1965 when ≪The Ventures≫ entered Japan as the first popular guitar band. Their performance started pop music and a guitar boom in Japan, customer demands soared.

Many upcoming guitar manufacturing companies tried to compete in the new market. FUJIGEN was a high rank guitar maker and soon won leadershipin the majority of sales, especially in the electric guitar market.

But towards the end of the 60's the guitar boom subsided. Many newcomers closed their business one after another. In the Matsumoto area in Nagano alone, over 50 guitar manufacturing companies went bankrupt.

Roland GR-500 GS-500 Worlds First Guitar Synthesizer
World's first guitar synthesizer

Between 1964 and 1969, more than 80 domestic companies had competed in the electric guitar market. After the crash, only a few manufacturing companies survived, among them FUJIGEN.

The years 1965 to 1975 were not very successful, party because of the oil crisis, the high-rising yen and also because some foreign makers pushed into the guitar manufacturing market.

FUJIGEN decided to face the situation. In the middle of the crisis, we decided to face the situation. In the middle of the crisis, we decided on two goals: To become the world's leading guitar manufacturer and to focus investment on the development of products. Striving to reach these goals enhanced our corporate strength.

In 1977, through a joint capital investment between Roland Corporation and FUJIGEN, we established the FUJI ROLAND CORP, based in Matsumoto. Together we developed the world's first guitar synthesizer GR-500. As its succesor, the most successful GR-300 / G-808 is still favored by many of today's guitarists such as Pat Metheny.

FUJIGEN celebrating world's number 1 guitar production capacity
Celebration of the world No. 1
guitar production capacity

In 1982, we started to cooperate with CBS Fender Corporation to strengthen our footing in the American market.

In the early 80's many famous brands had their production outsourced to so called OEMs (Origiinal Equipment Manufactures).

FUJIGEN was a top OEM with great experience and production capacity. Our monthly output raised up to 14,000 electric guitars. This was world leadership. In 1983, we had reach out goal.

But this situation did not last for very long.


Crisis and Rebirth / Entry into disparate industries

Coating and polishing by handwork
Coating and polishing by handwork
Neck carving
Neck carving
FGN Virtuoso series
FGN Virtuoso series
HEARTFIELD music boxes
Wooden panels for luxury car
Wooden panels for luxury car

Rising costs for production and labor made it soon difficult to manufacture popular products in Japan. Both producers and OEM suppliers started to look for lower production expenses, focusing low-cost factories, especially in China. For a long period, Japan had been called ≪The factory of the World≫, but then businesses were gradually moved to Korea and China and the title has gone over to them.

In April 1989 we changed our name from "Fuji Gen Gakki Manufacturing Corp." to simply "Fujigen" and decided to supporting companies, form a group and promote each company's development individually. Together we motivated and encouraged all employees to open up a new era in the world guitar business.

FUJIGEN has an accumulation of knowledge and technology in the field of guitar production that has been developed over many years. For the methods of care, drying, and coating for all woods, our know-how and technology are unrivaled by any other maker.

We see a worldwide increasing demand into improvement, thus we invest into continuous research for superior original products. In the field of electric guitars, we have decided to put quality over quantity and establish ourselves as a brand for middle and high grade guitars.

To develop technologies and to establish them in various working fields is an economical key factor of today's manufacturing companies.

Today, FUJIGEN has two business divisions: The M.I. Division (Music Instruments) and the C.A. Division (Car Audio).

FUJIGEN's M.I. division has excellent production lines for electric guitars. We concentrate on top signature models for famous domestic and overseas brands. Within this line, we produce our original FUJIGEN brand guitars and the FgN series for Japanese market.

The C.A. division became possible due to our experiences with coating- and sound applications. We produce wooden dashboards, sound control panels, cabinets and gearshift levers for luxury cars. The processes to manufacture all these products from the selection of woods to the final polishing are nearly the same as those of electric guitars. In particular our top coating technology is able to render stunning colors to any wooden surface.

There are some secondary business FUJIGEN is engaged: small music boxes named HEART FIELD, an ukulele named PUPUKEA and a Japanese traditional drum named RYU-SYO (rising dragon).

Like our electric guitar products, our original music boxes are made of a large variety of wood with expertly calculated sound propeties.

In the field of genuine musical instruments, the original PUPUKA ukulele and the traditional RYU-SHO drum stay ahead in terms of manufacturing and sound quality. We have even built a practice hall in our head factory for people interested in drum lessons.

All our musical instruments and products are estimated highly for their beautiful sounds.

FUJIGEN has now 3 factories in 3 locations: The head factory in Matsumoto City, the Omachi factory in Matsumoto surrounding area and the Hirooka factory in Shiojiri City. At the Omachi factory, timber is seasoned by our proprietary drying system. Top conditioned wood gets accurately shaped by 5 axis CNC-routers for guitar bodies and necks. In both the head factory in Matsumoto and in the Hirooka factory, products are coated, assembled and finished. 

Besides these factories, we have affiliate companies such as the Ohotsk Public Wood Craft Promotion Ltd. in the booth of Hokkaido, who cooperate with us in the processing of wood and coating facilities.

There are 22 supporting companies in the Matsumoto area cooperating with us as a group. This network of support and cooperation is a strong production key for FUJIGEN.

As an investment into the future we take great care of our employees who's accumulation and tradition of technologies and technology is passed on to apprentices.

Fujigen Factory
Fujigen Omachi factory in Nagano
FUJIGEN Omachi factory in Nagano

Establishing FUJIGEN's original Brand (FGN Guitars)

As an OEM for top brands, we intend to tighten our position in terms of quality over quantity as a reliable partner. In order to attain a certain independence and to realize our own design ideas, we have launched our brand FGN for overseas market. We have opened an original custom shop in Ikebukuro, Tokyo and we launched a Japanese online-shop for FUJIGEN / FGN brand guitars and basses. We recently started establishing a worldwide distribution network for FGN branded products.

Our custom house in Tokyo is the main sales point for FUJIGEN / FGN branded guitars and basses. The expert staff receives special orders for individually modified instruments and provides repair services. We care for quality customer service with throughness in dating and craftmanship. We are proud to do everything possible to satisfy our customers.

With all this, FGN is striving to use all of its assets as effectively as possible to make progress towards a top brand guitar maker with a big name: FGN Guitars

FGN Expert Series
FGN Expert series
FUJIGEN/FGN Custom House in Tokyo
FUJIGEN Custo House in Tokyo

HISTORY OF FUJIGEN

May.1960

Established in Nagano Prefecture, Japan through a joint capital investment, one million yen by Mr.Yutaka Mimura and Mr.Yuichiro Tokouchi.Mr.Yuichiro Yokouchi had tried hard to spread a dairy farming and decided to sell his cattle to collect the investment.He reconstructed his cattle pen as a guitar factory. In the guitar factory, first, only ten workers had manufactured trial products of violin and started to manufacture original classic guitars.

July.1960

Our classic guitars won the prize in Matsumoto woodwork festival held in Matsumoto city, Nagano.

May.1961

Chikuma factory opened and started to manufacture high-grade classic guitars. Then, we had a rush of orders and went in the black from this first year.

Oct.1962

Started to manufacture original electric guitars.

Dec.1962

The Ventures visited Japan for tour concert and many people were influenced by their music and electric guitar sounds.

Oct.1963

Decided to guitar trade with USA in directly.

May.1964

Mr.Yuichiro Yokouchi(president chairman) visited to USA to find new trading markets for our products.

Apr.1965

The Ventures was great popular in Japan and created a electric guitar boom in Japan.

July.1966

Hirata factory opened to manage and control our productions and qualities well.(and this places our present head factory.)

Aug.1967

Plywood factory opened.

Oct.1967

New York Sales Office opened.

Dec.1969

Mr.Yuichiro Yokouchi took over as president and promoted in-company reform.

Jan.1970

Increased the capital to 40 million yen.

May.1970

Stopped the direct trade and decided to focus on manufacturing our products as maker.

June.1972

Fujigen head office opened.

Oct.1972

Started a made-to-order system.

Jan.1973

tarted to manufacture flat mandolins and banjos.

Apr.1974

Annual turn over 1.3billion yen a year.

Oct.1978

Established an instrument corporation named FujiRoland Co. through a joint capital investment with Roland corp. and released the world's first guitar synthesizer.

Apr.1979

Started wood's direct imports.

Jun.1981

Introduced the world's first CNC ( Computer Numerical Control) router for manufacturing guitars.

Nov.1981

Started to manufacture original pickups.

Apr.1982

OEM cooperation with CBS Fender corp. and started to manufacture guitars for Fender.

Apr.1983

14 thousand-pieces of electric guitars were manufactured per month(this amount was the No.1 production all over the world.) Introduced high spec machine with a computer control.

Oct.1985

Share of guitar production: Overseas 80%, Domestic 20%.

Jun.1986

Mr.Yuichiro Yokouchi and Yoshimochi Kamijo installed as chairman and president.

Nov.1987

Established R&D GUITAR INC.(USA)

Apr.1989

Changed our corporate name to FUJIGEN Co., Ltd.

Oct.1989

Installed five division systems.(Guitar, Housing tools, Metals, New entry, Outdoor goods)

Oct.1990

Established Sunwood co., ltd. and released original guitar from FUJIGEN brand, "HEART-FIELD".

Dec.1990

Rehearsal studio, "JAMM" opend. Increased the capital to 9.56million yen.

Nov.1991

Established FUJIGEN Hirooka co., ltd.

Apr.1997

Reorganization to two division systems as M.I(Music Instrument)division and C.A(Car Audio)division.

1999

Released original music boxes from FUJIGEN bland, "HEART-FIELD".

2001

Released original Japanese drums "Ryu-sho"(means Rising Dragon). Ikebukuro(Tokyo) FUJIGEN custom house No.1 opened.

May.2005

Shibuya(Tokyo) FUJIGEN custom house No.2 opened.

May.2006

Ikebukuro(Tokyo) FUJIGEN custom house No.1 removed in Tokyo.

July.2006

FUJIGEN's online shop opened.

Oct.2006

Exhibited our original guitars to PREMIUM GUITAR SHOW 2006, JAPAN.

May.2007

Online shop renewed.

Nob.2007

Exhibited FUJIGEN original guitar to Instrumental Fair 2007, JAPAN. Won the most valuable company prize in Japanese small and medium scale enterprises.

Mar.2008

Combined with Ikebukuro and Shibuya custom houses.

May.2008

Marketing dept. and Assembly process dept. of M.I division systems moved to Omachi factory, Nagano prefecture.

May.2009

Established FGN brand for overseas market.
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This history of Fujigen was archived on October 25, 2010. At some point Fujigen revised their website, removing much of the history information. Visit the current history page at Fujigen

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