Just a heads up for everyone... a number of knife maker associations across japan have agreed upon price raises for products made by their members. It seems this is occurring in multiple regions, and even those outside of these associations will be raising prices. In many cases, we expect to see 20% increases (though we have been told that some will be more). We have been told that these changes will begin in the fall, but people are going about it differently. Some have already started, while others will take a bit longer. Some will be raising prices on knives ordered from that point on, while others will be raising prices on everything (including items that have already been on order, but have not yet been paid for or shipped). This is not in every single region for knife making, but we have heard this from many of them, and expect others to follow suit.
We have not seen so much of this as of yet, but we expect this to start effecting us (and everyone else) shortly.
Jonathan Broida
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