Understanding the Seki Division of Labour System
One of the most important things to understand about the Japanese scissors industry — and one of the least discussed outside of Japan — is that most scissors are not made by a single company from start to finish. Seki City operates on a system called bungyosei (分業制), a division-of-labour model where independent specialist workshops handle different stages of production.
How the System Works
A single pair of professional scissors may pass through six or more separate workshops before completion. Each stage has its own specialists:
- Steel procurement (鋼材商 / kozaisho): Specialist traders source raw steel from mills like Takefu Special Steel or Hitachi Metals (Proterial) and supply it to manufacturers.
- Forging and pressing (鍛造/プレス / tanzo/puresu): Raw steel is shaped into blade blanks through hot forging or precision pressing.
- Grinding (研削 / kensaku): Blade blanks are ground to the correct profile and thickness. This is where the convex edge geometry begins to take shape.
- Heat treatment (熱処理 / netsushori): Blades are hardened and tempered to achieve the target Rockwell hardness. This stage is critical — incorrect heat treatment ruins even the finest steel.
- Assembly (組立 / kumitate): Blades are paired, fitted with a pivot mechanism, and adjusted for tension and alignment.
- Sharpening and finishing (研ぎ/仕上げ / togi/shiage): Final edge sharpening and cosmetic finishing. Many premium scissors are hand-sharpened by specialists with decades of experience.
- Engraving (刻印 / kokuin): Brand names, model numbers, and logos are applied.
What This Means for Brands
The bungyosei system means that a scissors brand can exist without owning a single piece of manufacturing equipment. A company can design a scissor, select the steel grade, and commission each production stage from established specialists. This is the basis of OEM production (相手先ブランド名製造 / aitesakiburandomei seizo) and white-label manufacturing.
This is not inherently a negative. A brand that carefully selects the best specialist for each stage can produce excellent scissors. The risk is that less scrupulous operators use the same system to produce mediocre scissors with premium branding and premium prices.
Why Stylists Should Care
Understanding bungyosei explains several things that puzzle Western buyers: why different brands can produce scissors that look and feel almost identical, why a new brand can appear with seemingly professional-grade products immediately, and why “made in Seki” is not by itself a guarantee of quality. The question is not just where a scissor was made, but which workshops handled each stage, and how carefully the process was managed.