One small city in the heart of Japan produces 96% of all glass frames in Japan and 20% of the world’s eyeglass frames…
One small city in the heart of Japan produces 96% of all glass frames in Japan and 20% of the world’s eyeglass frames, including high-end brands you’d never think were made in Japan. Sabae, located in Fukui Prefecture is an anomaly in Japan but perhaps it could be a model for the future.
The eyeglass frame industry, which has been the heartbeat of Fukui prefecture for a century along with textiles, started in 1905 in Shono, a poor farming village often buried in snow during the winter months. It was here that two brothers Gozaemon and Kohachi Masunaga searched in vain to “somehow improve the lives of the people of Shono”, leading them to the idea of producing glasses to secure more income during the snowy farming off-season. They brought over skilled craftsmen from Osaka to teach the villagers the methods of glasses production.
As the popularization of print literature happened the demand for reading glasses grew, and the eyeglass manufacturing began to boom all over Fukui. It began with the Masunaga factory and spread from Fukui City to Sabae City. In Sabae, the entire city became engaged in the production process, utilizing the farming methods and teamwork they had cultivated and eventually dividing the labor to specialized units, which became the basis of the city-run production model which still exists today.
Although the manufacturing took a pause during WW2, the demands and production grew steadily post war. Subsequently in 1981, the industry set out on a quest to research and develop the production of frames using titanium, a material that was only used for airplanes and rockets. Dedication and hard work overcame the obstacles of the machining difficulties and Sabae succeeded in developing the world’s first titanium frames, allergy free and also the lightest and sturdiest. This defined Sabae as the world leader of high tech and high quality eyewear, a title they hold proud to this day.
The city’s legacy is on display at the Sabae Megane Museum(Eyeglass Museum) where one can see the evolution of the designs and materials along with the machinery and artifacts.
Walking through the space, one cannot help but wonder why a seemingly innocuous small city in the “へそ(belly)”of Japan birthed such innovative ideas and the technology to support it.
Ryozo Takeuchi, Chairman of Takeuchi Optical Co. Ltd(founded in 1932) and the President of Fukui Optical Association, brings up several key points. “Since this was a small city, compared to larger cities, wages were lower so women were inclined to work for a double income.
