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Japanese External Reverse Porro Prism Binoculars. On Line MUSEUM |
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JB/JE Japanese binoculars manufacturer codes. JB/ JE codes fabricants sur les jumelles japonaises. JB/ JE Herstellercodes auf japanischen Ferngläsern. JB/JE 日本 の双眼鏡のメーカーコード . JB/ JE оды производителей японских биноклейк. JB/ JE códigos de fabricantes en binoculares japoneses. JB/ JE codici dei produttori sui binocoli giapponesi. JB/ JE tillverkarens koder på japanska kikare. JB/ JE Fabrikantcodes op Japanse verrekijkers. JB/ JE Japon dürbünlerinde üretici kodları. JB/ JE Кодове на производителя на японски бинокли. JB/ JE 日本双筒望远镜上的制造商代码 . JB/JE Kódy výrobců na japonských dalekohledech. |
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The true value of an on line binoculars museum concept is the ability to gift information to everybody everywhere. A pioneer of posting binoculars and optics information on the internet was researcher Peter Abrahams, on his website Europa, and I probably used the information that he posted (especially JB codes) literally 1,200 plus times in doing my own research. His gifting to everyone of that research information certainly influenced my own thinking. The information he presented and which everybody relied on for even the most cursory research into Japanese binoculars was the lists of Japanese JB and JE manufacturer codes marked on Japanese binoculars for many decades. Sadly Peter Abrahams has passed away, but I am exceptionally pleased to have the permission of his daughter Katie Abrahams in making this information again easily accessible to everybody everywhere, and to have the privilege of promoting the tradition of facilitating this type of open optics research data. |
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Peter & Katie Abrahams |
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The marking is actually “JL” (Japan light machinery) plus a “B” for the binoculars assembling manufacturer or an “E” for the manufacturer of the frame/body (metalwork), and a number representing the manufacturer identity. |
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JB/JE manufacturer code list in ascending numerical order |
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JB/JE manufacturer code list in ascending alphabetical order by name |
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Note: For JE prefix codes the manufacturer identification number is the same ID number as those marked below with JB code as prefix. |
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JB/JE BINOCULARS MANUFACTURER CODE LIST VIEW COUNT UPDATED 3/20/ 2026 26,740 JB/ JE code views |
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1959 Binoculars Manufacturers Addresses (Companion list to manufacturer JB codes) |
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PLEASE DO NOT COPY AND REPOST THIS LIST. |
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PLEASE DO NOT COPY AND REPOST |
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“After WW11 the Japanese people were desperate to find ways to become entrepreneurs while challenged by the circumstances that now existed in Japan. Former employees of the Japanese war efforts who were experienced in building binoculars, all recognized there was an opportunity in the peace time market for binoculars. These employees were scattered through out mainland Japan, and many were former employees of the first 20 companies on the J/B manufacture list. These few original companies begin building binoculars with good quality control that were a great value for Americans who had been paying dearly for that precious pair of Zeiss, or Bausch & Lomb. The market exploded, in the United States, thanks to people like Dave Bushnell, Humphrey Swift, and many others. With that explosion, just about everyone in Japan, who could, jumped on the band wagon building binoculars, some were very good, some fair, and some were junk. Some of the early group recognized the need for a quality control board. The Japanese Telescopes Inspection Institute was formed, and developed an Export standard.” The JB /JE codes marked on binoculars were an internal industry way to link binoculars meeting those standards (and entitled to those “passed” stickers) back to their assembling and parts manufacturer. In the early 1980’s Bill Beacom met an optics dealer who mentioned having seen a complete list, and Bill contacted and obtained the list in Japanese from the Japanese Telescopes Inspection Institute/ associated Japanese Binoculars Promotion Association in NYC. Around 1990 Bill engaged a Japanese student to translate it, and the translation was given to eight people, and Fred Schwartzman formatted his copy to go onto Peter Abrahams binoculars website. I mention this to emphasize how chance, and perceptions of value, and individual efforts, preserved and made available this important data tool in understanding Japanese binoculars production. |
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Quoting Bill Beacom, who originally obtained the list of JB identification codes assigned to Japanese binoculars manufacturers through a formal request to the Japanese Telescopes Inspection Institute through the Japanese Export Promotion Association which took a year to arrive from Japan as Japanese language documents, which he had translated… |
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Bill Beacom |
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To donate a small sum to help host this site paste the following on your browser https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/ contribute/miniaturebinoculars.com ENJOY THIS CATALOG RESOURCE? Consider Participating The website represents the unpaid effort of mostly one person and whenever anybody looks at it, then it actually costs a little bit of money out of pocket. Not a big deal and with a commitment to doing a lot with a little the website is hosted at Nearly Free Speech.net and it is very cost effective. But with as many as 1/4 million page views in busy months, each view does cost a little bit of money and over time it adds up. We really like to encourage active viewer participation: photos, information, feedback, binoculars catalogs, questions, comments, binoculars, translation help: anything. Maybe you don’t have any information or photos to contribute, but if you enjoyed this website then please also consider supporting the effort with a tiny gift: 50¢, 75¢, price of a candy bar or cup of coffee...anything. Every 75¢ donated (which goes directly to the web hosting account and can’t be used for anything else) would pay for at least 15,000 (and perhaps a lot more) people to view the website and is a vote that the effort is hepful and useful. Many thanks to people who have helped with photos information, feedback, translation improvements, and donations. |
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JB JE Japanese binoculars manufacturers codes. Codes du fabricant des jumelles japonaises JB JE.JB JE Hersteller von japanischen Ferngläsern.JB JE 日本 の双眼鏡メーカーのコード。 Códigos del fabricante de prismáticos japoneses JB JE |