>River2Sea and others who manufacture in China like to claim
>that they make lures for Japanese companies, mainly to justify
>the fact that they knock-off popular designs. River2Sea made a
>knock-off of Megabass Pop-X starting several years ago, they
>never manufactured for Megabass. I know that this is the yarn
>that reps are spreading to help bring credibility to the
>Chinese made product, but every one of my Evergreen lures
>states that it was made in Japan.
>
>Perhaps some of the high-end lures are made in China for major
>Japanese tackle designers, but no one has every told me that
>aside from reps trying to promote products from China.

R2S really does OEM for many Japanese brands. I've seen and handled some of the lures/blank body prototypes/samples OEM'ed for Shimano, Daiwa, Bass Pro, Megabait, Vagabond and others. The packages on some of these lures may say "made in Japan" but they're probably just assembled or packaged in Japan.

These brands' entire lines may not be manufactured there but some definitely are. The Japanese do have a history of using cheap labor from Asia.