Are Nikons made in Thailand now?

You are probably mixing different issues in your sentence above.

Would I buy a Leica made in China?  No.  But not because of quality concerns.  I would buy Leica because of German tradition.  I wouldn't buy a Leica if it was made in Japan either.  I want "Made in Germany" stamped on the product.  But I'm not buying Nikon (or Canon) because of some legendary Japanese mystique.  I also wouldn't buy an Audi or Porsche made in Japan either.

People get the wrong idea about Thailand and China.  Because the cheaper products are made there they make the assumption that the product itself is shoddily made.  The same used to be said about Japan 50 years ago.  "Made in Japan" was a stamp of cheap construction.  It's a question of lower cost labor and large volume products that can't command much of a premium need to use lower cost labor to compete in the marketplace.

There are issues with QC that need to be worked out in any newly opened factory.  There is also the question of where the labor pool for the new factory comes from... in other words, is there a labor pool with experience building the types of products you want to build.  So there are/were some QC issues no doubt when any new Thailand or China plant is opened.  And more so 10 years ago when the first electronics factories were being opened for the first time.  But there are a ton of electronics being made in Thailand and China these days.  There is a growing skilled labor pool.

A new Nikon factory that opens up in Japan is going to have the same issues that any new factory is going to have.  If you open it next door to your existing factory, maybe less so.  If you open it up on the opposite end of the country probably many more.  Just because the product may say "Made in Japan" does not guarantee ultimate quality.

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Mike Dawson