Mizunos are most preferred by many people when it comes to irons that are Japanese made. I just wanted to see what WRXers would vouch for when it came to Japanese made woods (driver, fairwaywood, hybrid). Eg: Mizuno, Bridgestone, Srixon, Fourteen etc etc. Thanks.

I have heard quite a bit of good things about Epon. You should probably include them as well.

They all make great stuff. I am a pretty big fan of Bridgestone. And I am pretty sure that Sonartec is a Jap. brand.

IN Japan we also have HONMA, They make each set custom made for the customer.
I have tried the Driver and 3 woods and irons the new series is called "BERES". The price for these can be very expensive though. Around 1500 USD for irons 5-pw. Driver starts
around 900 USD 3 wood not far behind.
They were very nice to hit and gave a great feel.
But i could not come at giving up my Ping Rapture just yet!

Some of the most successful drivers and woods for me have been PRGR, Katana and Yonex. And no, I not speaking of the lady models, I'm speaking of the men's models though a bit higher loft than most men enjoy. I have not had much luck with XXIO even though they are the number one Woods and Iron seller in Japan by volume. You can the occassional one on ebay and they are not too expensive. IMHO if these brands were offered in the USA, then TM, Cally and Ping would be getting a real run for their money.

Ciao "Wan"

Tourstage (Bridgestone) is very hard to beat.

I don't think they are made in Japan - Tourstage and Bridgestone woods and drivers are made at the Endo factory in Thailand according to the guys I spoke with at Endo.

Sonartec is a US brand, but much of their original club head designs comes from Royal Collection, a JDM brand.

I'm not even sure all the Royal Collection wood heads are made in the Japan factory from start to finish, I think some are made in Taiwan/China - Chris from TSG can probably confirm this. Due to more expensive labor wages in Japan and more restricted environmental requirements in Japan, some of the finish works done to the golf club heads are done in China and Taiwan.

However Sonartec supposedly have stopped the cooperation with Royal Collection and started to design their own club head from scratch - hence the new HB-001 hybrid.

My picks are Mizuno and Tourstages, although Epon's forged driver is just out of this world. The ball just took off like a jet.

I am a huge fan of Tourstage woods... ViQ if you want forgiving, and X-Drive if you can keep it in the fairway on your own.

They're are some great woods from other companies though, including Srixon/XXIO (new ZR-700 driver looks fantastic in person), PRGR and Beres make solid woods if you have some extra $ lying about, and if you don't mind a JDM product from a US parent, the Callaway ERC Hyper is a rocket (imho).

As for where they are made - and no, I don't think it makes a huge difference today - Srixon does a fair bit in Japan (XXIO and ZR-700), Tourstage tells you on their website (Thailand/China) and I haven't come accross information for any of the others companies.

the on/off 450 plus is great too. with a axiv-x shaft. just awesome.

I'll take the OnOff 450 with the Roddio shaft. I still think you hit mine better too.

At one point I had huge success with OnOff. I had inadvertently forgot them and now add them to my list to compliment your comment...they are great drivers and their irons are top shelf too. Going to have to give OnOff a try again this winter! Never Snows in Pattaya!!!!

Ciao "Wan"

XXIO, Epon, Fourteen, Tourstage are my top JDM choices. Beres is good for game improvement.

Check out the current results of the thread titled "Golfwrx JDM Hot List" in this forum. It has Epon leading with ONOFF, TourStage and Royal Collection receiving a good amount of votes.

(Haven't figured out yet where to get the post ID to put in a link)

You can right click on the topic name or click on the topic post number:
http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/index.php?s=...st&p=893970

I like:
Epon
Tourstage
PRGR
OnOff
Royal Collection
All produce very high quality woods, my PRGR T3 has a forged SP700 Titanium face and a body made of part 15-3-3-3 Titanium and part Beta titanium, no wonder it cost $900!