Kawahiro China. They All Pretend to be Japanese because “Made in China” does not sell knives.

A Yangjiang-built mass-production knife wrapped in a fabricated Japanese identity to capture a premium margin.

The reason this keeps happening is that people want cheap even at the expense of others, you know, the country of Japan and their multigenerational bladesmiths. The same goes for any other segment, from restaurants to any other product, like fruit. The crown jewel of this exact operation is an ongoing controversy surrounding a luxury fruit called the Beni Princess (Beni Purinsesu).

You’re probably here for Kawahiro knives, but what do I do, I toss in an apples and oranges comparison, or more like a knife and oranges comparison, but hear me out my fellow human.

Knockoff brands to deceptive brands is why most people cannot name a favorite or loved Chinese brand because the Chinese view marketing as a means to fool the buyer (not just foreigners, but their own people, and Xiaomi got slammed for relying on sneaky fine print to dodge accountability for wild headline claims).

The “Beni Princess” Heist

George Clooney and crew are not planning this heist, but Zhang, Wang, and crew have already pulled this heist off:

Apparently, and I had to look this up, eating one feels “less like chewing a piece of fruit and more like popping a natural water balloon filled with cold, hyper-concentrated orange syrup.” I definitely want to try one, though.

From Champagne, Roquefort, and Parmesan to Jacuzzi, these are all regional brand names. Well, except that last one, and every real estate agent thinks all hot tubs are by Jacuzzi.

• The 20-Year R&D: Researchers in Japan’s Ehime Prefecture spent two decades cross-breeding a “citrus thoroughbred” officially designated as Ehime Kashi No. 48. It combines the famous jelly-like texture of the Beni Madonna orange with the intense, rich sweetness of the Kanpei mandarin.
• The Instant Outflow: The fruit was registered as a new protected variety in Japan in 2022 and only began full-scale commercial shipping. But the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) confirmed that unauthorized saplings were already flooding major Chinese online marketplaces under a direct Chinese translation of “Beni Princess.”
• The Biological Theft: You cannot clone a specific hybrid citrus by planting a seed—seeds are genetic wild cards that produce random variations. To get a Beni Princess, agricultural smugglers literally snip live scions (cuttings) from authorized Japanese branches, smuggle them out of the country in luggage, and graft them onto domestic rootstock in China to mass-produce an exact DNA clone.

Now, you might not care that this is happening to the Japanese because the friend who got their liberal arts degree gave you an earful over avocado toast at lunch about what they learned about the Japanese eighty-plus years ago (of course, their instructor left out that within the last seventy-plus years, the CCP has been more detrimental to the Chinese people by 4-8x, but that ruins the one-sided narrative).

They claim to use VG-10, but since it is Chinese, they technically can get it, but 95% of the time, what a Chinese factory markets as “VG-10” is a domestic clone. VG-10 (V-Gold 10) is a proprietary alloy created and patented by Takefu Special Steel Co., Ltd. based in Fukui, Japan.

Brand Ownership & Shell Licensing

This is rampant throughout Amazon and the internet, where Chinese sellers or business owners pretend they are Japanese. However, it’s not just the Chinese. Sellers throughout Europe, the US, and globally know ‘made in China’ doesn’t sell products.

However, it’s not just the Chinese. Sellers throughout Europe, the US, and globally know ‘made in China’ doesn’t sell products. Kamikoto is a brand started by a non-Chinese dude who is playing off of the Shun brand.

The trademark for KAWAHIRO (and its Kanji equivalent 川弘) is registered through the Mainland China trademark office. The owner of record is 日本赢刃物株式会社 (Japan WIN Forged Knife Co., Ltd.).

By incorporating a shell entity that literally has “Japan” in the business name, the parent company can print “Owned by Japan WIN Forged Knife Co.” on the documentation and packaging. It easily passes a superficial glance, even though the operation, manufacturing, and distribution are based entirely in China. This single entity holds a cluster of identical pseudo-Japanese shell marks, including ATUMURYOU, TANSAKU, and KANNGOUSAKU.

There is substantial evidence that the CCP, at minimum, looks the other way, and in many cases actively benefits from or indirectly enables, widespread fraud, counterfeiting, and IP theft targeting foreign (especially American) markets. So, when it comes to China, they account for ~70-90% of global counterfeit goods seized worldwide, depending on the report and year, they’re like, we didn’t see nuffin.

Quick tips for buyers to avoid these:

I know of a writer that shills as a knife expert, yet he purchased a blatantly Chinese knife, so if you don’t want to be like him, be sure to:

• Check for explicit “Made in Japan” + reputable maker (e.g., from Seki, Sakai, or known forges). Real ones usually have clear traceability (bro, even Japanese cows comes with it).
• Look up the brand + “China” or check trademark databases.
• Steel hype without specifics (or unverifiable “hand-forged by master artisan”) is a red flag.
• Price vs. performance: A true Japanese VG-10 or Aogami knife from a known brand won’t be dirt cheap. One brand that stands out to me is SpyderCo based in Golden, CO that was known for using Japanese VG-10.

Conclusion

Try to name one Chinese brand that you consider reputable or that you love. Most would struggle to do so because Chinese branding and marketing are not built around integrity or honesty, but around deceit and deception.

Most can name a dozen or more Korean and Japanese brands from Samsung, Kia, Hyundai, Sony, Nintendo, etc.

The rule of law exists via international law because it provides the basic rules of the game and how it’s played. The vast majority of countries abide by them, but the ones that don’t can cause real damage. Take the oceans: China is the biggest culprit in the environmental and ecological destruction of ocean ecosystems, depleting them with impunity because no enforcement mechanism can stop it.

You may ask about Greenpeace and other environmental groups, but they don’t say anything because they know the CCP doesn’t abide by the rules. So they work within the restricted confines that the CCP allows them, which means, yeah, they’re not that effective (sort of like how I feel sometimes combating these products).