Made in Japan

If you’re a collector of ceramics and porcelain, it’s likely that you’ve checked on the bottom of that item you browsed in your local antique store, searching for information on the company or artist that made it. Sometimes, you might have been greeted by a stamp that simply read, “Made in Occupied Japan,” (often abbreviated as ‘OJ’), “Made in Japan,” or “Japan.”

Items bearing that stamp come from a very brief but interesting time in the history of both our country and Japan itself. According to the U.S. State Department, Japan surrendered to Allied forces on Sept. 2, 1945, just a few weeks after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war left Japan’s economy devastated, and the U.S. led the Allies in occupying and rehabilitating the country. That occupation lasted for nearly seven years, from the fall of 1945 to the spring of 1952. In order to make money during those years, many artists and crafters made small collectibles like porcelain figurines, which then were sold abroad. Just like today’s items made in Japan, these collectibles, which weren’t just limited to ceramics like planters and ashtrays, or porcelain figurines, were cheaply made, and chipped or broke easily.

Reproductions have been made of these items, too, flooding the market since roughly the 1980s.

OJ collectible

Thankfully, both in-person and social media groups of collectors of these items have popped up, too, giving collectors a place to discuss, buy, sell, and trade. If in doubt about the authenticity of an OJ collectible, always take your item(s) to have it evaluated and appraised by a professional. You also can test these items yourself – one way to test a porcelain OJ item, for instance, is to look at the OJ marking, which should have been put on under the porcelain’s glaze. If you rub nail polish remover over the mark and it comes off, you know it’s a reproduction.