Even more Vietnamese Monos – this time the Mono without the 100.
Please don’t misunderstand what this blog post is about. It is not a complaint that Tombow’s Monos are now made in Vietnam. It is more of a complaint that Tombow seems to be misleading their customers.
The pack of three Monos from Tombow USA is labelled ‘Made in Japan’, even though the pencils are made in Vietnam.
I assume this is just an oversight, i.e. they forgot to change the print on the back of the cardboard, rather than a planned deception of their customers – but that still doesn’t seem right.
Besides your article (danke sehr!), in general:
what is your/the definition of “Made in”?
The wood/slats potentially is made by CalCedar, from Cali,
the graphite is probably mined/refined/made in India/Madagascar,
the graphite mines were produced in Japan, or China (?),
the paper box made in Korea/China (?)
all was then shipped to Vietnam and assembled there 😉
Ps, the Tajima ((made) by Tombow) is now also coming from Vietnam.
I completely get your point. Reminds me of the situation in California. I heard they have stricter rules thank other parts of the USA, so can’t always have the same labeling.
In general the labeling should follow law, but condensing things down to one country can be ridiculous. Reminds me of Leica who do a lot in Portugal, but follow the rules so that they can claim their products are made in Germany.
Thank you very much for splitting up where which part is made. Very informative!
Frank, you forgot the water, the clay, the paraffin, the glue, the lacquer and the foil for stamping 😉
Maybe they had old stock of the packaging.
And I forgot craftmanship 😉 Anyway, it was not my intention to sound pedantic ; although I seem positively prejudiced when “Made in Japan” is on a pencil. I’ve now read the FTC standard on this (*1) and heard that this was discussed also in the Erasable podcast 10 from 26:45 onwards (*2).
1. https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/complying-made-usa-standard
2. http://www.erasable.us/episode/10