Our Story

 

Company Name

• SeiyaJapan.com Since Dec. 2002

Our Vision

• Provide high-quality domestically-produced Japanese watches to watch lovers worldwide.

Our Mission

• We vow to be trustworthy at Seiyajapan.com.
• We are always thinking about how it would be if we were the ones making the purchase as a customer.
• We strive to ensure customer satisfaction with their purchases from Seiyajapan.com.

Corporate name: Kobayashi Inc.
Director: Seiya Kobayashi
Office Address 135-0061 Japan Tokyo, Koto-ku Toyosu 4-9-13
Telephone: 81-80-4201-6602 
E-mail: seiya@seiyajapan.com
Hours: Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 17:00. We are closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. 

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I have always loved Japanese watches, especially ones made in Japan for the Japanese consumer. The quality and value of these watches - manufactured and sold only in Japan -- is generally far superior to the quality of the Japanese-brand watches manufactured outside of Japan for non-Japanese customers.  

Unfortunately, until recently few outside Japan knew this fact. But with the advent of the Internet and the launch of this website, watch-buyers outside of Japan now have access to the quality and value of our best watches.

Because of the Web and word-of-mouth, I've been able to sell many Japan-only Grand Seiko, Seiko, Citizen, Orient, Casio, and G-Shock watches to non-Japanese customers. I've done this without high-pressure sales and marketing because I believe the watches speak for themselves. I also keep my margins low and the quality of my service high. As a watch-lover myself, I know that value, quality and service are very important to the watch-buying consumer.

I know the history of these famous brands is important as well. I researched the history of Grand Seiko to get a deep understanding of their products and traditions, which I translated into English.  

The Story of my Father’s Grand Seiko.

When I was a child, Japan was a poor country. Most Japanese owned only one wristwatch. But my father, who worked for a large Osaka-based pharmaceutical company, loved watches so much that he owned many. However, all of them were of Swiss manufacture, as no high-quality Japanese watches were being produced at that time.  

When Seiko released its Grand Seiko model in 1964 (the year of my wife's birth), my father rushed to buy it. I remember him showing me the watch and saying with pride, "Now we have a high-quality, Japanese-manufactured watch." 

    

Although at the time I didn't understand the significance of what he said, the regal beauty of the golden lion on the caseback of his watch made a life-long impression on me. That Grand Seiko became my father's favorite watch and it kept perfect time for more than thirty years.

However, when my father was hospitalized some years ago, the watch stopped for the first time. He asked me to have it repaired, and I did. However, he passed away before I could get his watch home from the repair shop.

I hesitated about telling this story because it is so personal, but I wanted you to know why Grand Seiko mechanical watches are so special to me. The watch pictured above with the leather strap is my father's Grand Seiko. 

My business is my passion.

Many of us work to earn a living, and enjoy our passions in our free time. I was like that, too, until I started my own business: SeiyaJapan. As an entrepreneur, I am able to pursue my passion for watches every day.

Before starting SeiyaJapan, I was an engineer in the computer business for many years. Before that, I was a TV commercial film producer. One of my projects was producing a Seiko year-end TV special - something like a Christmas special in the West. The Seiko production was very popular, and won an industry award here in Japan.

I am grateful to my father, for sparking my interest in watches, and to my customers, who share my passion for great timepieces and make SeiyaJapan possible. I thank you all – arigato gozaimashita!

 

 Seiya Kobayashi