How did Kaneko Optical evolve from a wholesaler into an integrated eyewear brand?

01 · WHOLESALE

In 1958, the starting point was a small wholesaler near the back of the field

Kaneko Optical’s official history says there were about 100 eyewear wholesalers in Sabae at the time and the company ranked around 95th or 96th by sales. With little access to the major manufacturers, its business centered on visiting eyewear and watch retailers in regional markets.

Shinya Kaneko, the current president, was born in 1958 and joined the family business after university in 1981. Repeated sales trips convinced him that remaining a secondary distributor dependent on other companies’ products would make structural change difficult.

02 · OWN BRAND

The first move beyond wholesale was to create products under its own brand

Shinya Kaneko took over management and incorporated the business in 1986. The following year the company released its first original branded eyewear, which its official history identifies as BLAZE.

At the time, licensed fashion names were common in the eyewear market. Kaneko Optical chose a different route, developing products through its own planning and design. In 1997 it launched the more experimental SPIVVY.

The company’s role was expanding from distribution into planning → design → brand building.

03 · DIRECT RETAIL

After building brands, the company built places to meet customers directly

Kaneko Optical opened its first directly operated store, FACIAL INDEX SPECTACLES, in Hakodate in 1998. Around the same period it began exhibiting at international eyewear shows such as MIDO and SILMO, and in 2000 opened FACIAL INDEX NEW YORK in SoHo.

The importance of direct retail is not simply the store count. A wholesaler that operates its own stores shortens the distance between product planning and customer response.

It creates a feedback loop: planning → store → customer response → planning again.

04 · MANUFACTURING

After brands and stores came a deliberate move to bring manufacturing capability inside

From 2006 Kaneko Optical began building its own manufacturing operation with the stated aim of carrying forward and developing Sabae’s making culture. In 2009 it completed BACKSTAGE, an integrated production facility for plastic frames.

The current brand page also describes GLASSWORKS, focused on metal frames, and BASEMENT, which applies technologies such as robotics, alongside BACKSTAGE as core production bases.

The important point is less the number of factories than the connection of functions: design and production can work closer together, and manufacturing feedback can return directly to planning.

05 · CRAFTSMANSHIP

Putting artisans’ names on the product was part of the same structural shift

Kaneko Optical developed its Craftsman Series by bringing the names of Sabae artisans to the front of the product. The company presents lines such as TAIHACHIRO KINSEI and IDO TAMIO-SAKU as a way to connect craft, authorship and succession.

In this model, craftsmanship is not the opposite of a system. Individual expertise becomes a brand asset that can be documented, communicated to customers and passed through an organized production base.

06 · GROUP STRUCTURE

Today planning, manufacturing, wholesale and direct retail sit inside one broader corporate structure

Kaneko Optical’s company profile lists its main businesses as eyewear planning, manufacturing, distribution and sales. Its holding company is Japan Eyewear Holdings, whose group also includes Four Nines (999.9).

Japan Eyewear Holdings transferred to the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market in October 2025. Kaneko Optical today is therefore better understood not as a single independent artisan workshop, but as a core company in a group connecting manufacturing, brand operation and direct retail.