Sabae eyewear facts for kids

Sabae eyewear is made in Sabae City, Japan. This city is one of the top three places in the world for making glasses! Fukui Prefecture, especially Fukui City and Sabae City, creates very high-quality frames. In fact, they make 95% of all Japanese eyewear frames sold around the world.

About 4,000 people work in this industry in Sabae. It can take from six months to a year to make just one pair of glasses. Sabae eyewear is special because it uses advanced titanium technology. This same technology is also used to make medical and electronic equipment. There are over 5,000 stores in Japan that sell Sabae glasses. A pair usually costs about 35,000 yen, not including the lenses.

History of Sabae Eyewear

The story of Sabae eyewear began around 1905. A man named Gozaemon Masunaga, often called the "ancestor of domestic eyeglasses," started making eyewear frames in Fukui. At that time, most people in Sabae were farmers. Farming was very hard in winter because Fukui gets a lot of snow.

Masunaga started the eyewear industry because it wasn't affected by the seasons. He invited skilled workers from Osaka to teach local farmers how to make glasses as a side job. Around this time, more people were getting educated, and printing technology was improving. This meant more people were reading things like newspapers. Because of this, more people needed glasses, and the demand grew.

By 1935, the eyewear industry had spread across Sabae and Fukui. A big step forward happened in 1981 when they successfully made the world's first titanium-based eyewear frames. After World War II, a large military factory was turned into an eyewear factory. This helped make Sabae's glasses industry even more famous.

How Sabae Eyewear Is Made

Making one pair of eyeglasses frames requires more than 200 steps! However, these steps can be grouped into nine main processes:

1. Design: This is the most important part. Craftsmen use computers and paper to design the eyewear. They think about how the glasses will feel and look on the person wearing them.
2. Mold-Making: In this step, a metal is cut very carefully to create the exact shape of the eyewear parts.
3. Press: The small pieces used for metal frames are pressed many times by machines to get the right shape.
4. Precision Cutting: Skilled craftsmen quickly and precisely cut the parts into their final shapes.
5. Brazing: Different parts are joined together using a special process called brazing. This involves heating them to very high temperatures, often 700 degrees Celsius or more.
6. Polishing: After joining, craftsmen polish the frames. This removes any rough spots and makes the surface smooth and shiny.
7. Inspection: To ensure safety and quality, products are checked again and again by craftsmen. They look for any flaws or defective items.
8. Surface Treatment: The frames are often plated with gold or other materials. This helps prevent them from rusting and makes them look beautiful.
9. Finishing: In the final step, the entire pair of glasses is carefully balanced and adjusted. This ensures everything is perfect before they are ready to be sold.