Major Craft (メジャークラフト株式会社, Major Craft Co., Ltd.) is a Japanese fishing-tackle manufacturer best known for fishing rods and lures, particularly equipment designed for lure fishing, shore jigging, eging, light game, bass fishing, trout, and offshore jigging. The company is headquartered in Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan, and has developed a reputation for offering Japanese-designed fishing tackle with a strong emphasis on performance-to-price ratio. 1

There is a small date distinction worth noting: Major Craft’s own U.S. history describes the brand as beginning in 2001, while the Japanese corporate profile lists the present company as established in February 2002. A Japanese business-investment profile likewise records Major Craft’s predecessor as being established in 2001 and its later corporate reorganization. 2

Origins

Major Craft emerged in Japan during the period when lure fishing was becoming increasingly popular and anglers were faced with a wide range of increasingly expensive fishing equipment.

According to an interview with founder Tsugio Mori, Mori had already spent roughly three decades in the fishing industry before establishing Major Craft. His central idea was that high price should not automatically mean high quality. He wanted to produce rods with high performance and quality while keeping them accessible to ordinary anglers. 3

This philosophy became one of Major Craft’s defining characteristics:

Japanese fishing-rod design and performance at a comparatively accessible price.

The company was formally established in the early 2000s in Osaka. Its corporate history records the move from a limited-company structure to Major Craft Co., Ltd. in 2005 and the move to its present headquarters in 2006.

Major Craft’s philosophy can broadly be summarized as:

High performance + reasonable price + practical design.

Its American operation describes the company’s mission as producing high-quality, affordable rods and lures while working closely with anglers to improve performance, quality and value. It also describes Major Craft as a vertically integrated manufacturer with its own factories and control over engineering and development.

This positioning is important because Major Craft occupies an interesting place in the Japanese tackle market. It is generally not positioned as an ultra-luxury custom rod maker. Instead, it has historically attempted to make relatively sophisticated rod technology available at prices accessible to a much larger group of anglers.

That has made the brand particularly popular among:

• Beginners looking for their first serious rod
• Intermediate anglers
• Saltwater lure fishermen
• Shore-jigging anglers
• Eging anglers
• Light-game anglers
• Bass fishermen
• Trout anglers
• Anglers who want multiple specialized rods without spending exclusively at the premium end

A Japanese business profile describes Major Craft as a specialist in lure rods and lures and says its products have achieved a top-tier share of Japan’s domestic lure-rod market, helped by its quality/value positioning.

Although the company is most famous for rods, its catalog is considerably broader. Major Craft’s product categories include:

Fishing Rods

• Saltwater rods
• Shore-jigging rods
• Eging rods
• Seabass rods
• Rock/light-game rods
• Ajing rods
• Flatfish rods
• Black porgy/chinu rods
• Offshore rods
• Jigging rods
• Bass rods
• Trout rods
• Area-trout rods

Lures

• Metal jigs
• Soft plastics
• Egi/squid jigs
• Minnows
• Blades
• Micro jigs
• Jig heads
• Topwater and other lure categories

Terminal Tackle

• Assist hooks
• Treble hooks
• Blades
• Snaps
• Fishing lines
• Leaders
• Rigs

Fishing Accessories

• Landing tools
• Bags
• Life jackets
• Fishing apparel
• Other accessories

The company’s catalog demonstrates just how broad the range has become, covering saltwater, freshwater, offshore and specialized Japanese fishing techniques.

Rods are the heart of the Major Craft brand. One of the company’s biggest achievements has been developing large families of rods for very specific fishing techniques rather than making only generic spinning and casting rods.

For example, its catalog separates products into categories such as:

• Shore Game
• Bass Fishing
• Area Trout
• Trout Fishing
• Offshore
• Eging
• Rock/Light Game
• Ajing
• Shore Jigging

This specialization is very characteristic of Japanese fishing culture, where a rod can be designed around a particular species, lure weight, fishing location and technique.

Firstcast

Firstcast is one of Major Craft’s entry-oriented/value-focused families. The idea is straightforward: give newcomers an easy way to enter specialized lure fishing without requiring an expensive rod. Major Craft’s Firstcast lineup covers applications including shore jigging. The company describes its shore-jigging Firstcast models as emphasizing ease of use, strong blanks and affordability, while using Fuji guides.

Typical positioning:

Beginner → affordable → practical → surprisingly capable.

This is one reason Firstcast is an important part of the Major Craft identity.

Solpara

Solpara is another highly recognizable Major Craft family, particularly associated with saltwater lure fishing. It sits above the most basic entry-level equipment and is aimed at anglers who want specialized saltwater performance without moving into very expensive territory. Solpara has been offered for applications such as:

• Eging
• Shore jigging
• Light game
• Rock fishing
• Seabass
• Various saltwater lure techniques

Crostage

Crostage is a more specialized performance-oriented family. It has historically been used for numerous saltwater techniques and is intended for anglers who want a more refined rod than basic entry-level equipment. The series illustrates Major Craft’s approach of creating rods around specific fishing techniques rather than one generic “saltwater rod.”

Triple Cross

Triple Cross represents a higher-performance segment of the traditional Major Craft lineup. It is aimed at anglers who are more demanding about:

• Blank response
• Sensitivity
• Weight
• Casting performance
• Lure control
• Fish-fighting characteristics

In other words, it moves the user further toward the performance-oriented end of Major Craft’s range.

One of the most important developments in modern Major Craft is its 1G / 5G generation naming system. The company currently markets several major rod families with 1G and 5G versions, including Cross Ride, Aji-Do, Egizust, Tide Drift, Flatreck, Black Porgy and Rockliver families.

The exact construction differs by series, but the naming broadly represents different generations/design philosophies rather than simply “5G is five times better than 1G.”

The 5G products are particularly important to Major Craft’s current premium-performance strategy. They are designed around improvements in areas such as:

• Weight reduction
• Sensitivity
• Blank response
• Balance
• Casting performance
• Recovery after casting
• Technique-specific actions

So when you see something such as “Major Craft 5G”, it generally refers to a more advanced generation of Major Craft rod design rather than a simple model number.

Another particularly interesting Major Craft family is Finetail, which focuses on trout. Finetail covers native trout and other trout-oriented applications.

The current Finetail Begins, for example, is designed around three major objectives:

1. Easy casting
2. Lure controllability
3. Reliable hook-setting/fish fighting

Major Craft also emphasizes specialized actions for mountain-stream, midstream and mainstream fishing.

Finetail Works Tune

Major Craft has also developed Finetail Works Tune, a more enthusiast-oriented trout series. This is a good example of Major Craft expanding beyond its traditional value-oriented image. The Works Tune concept focuses on:

• Performance
• Design
• Craftsmanship
• Collectability
• Specialized materials

Some models use UD glass, natural wood reel seats and grips, metal components and Fuji K-frame SiC-S guides.

This is considerably more “boutique” in philosophy than the company’s basic beginner rods.

Major Craft also has a substantial bass-fishing history. Its bass lineup includes families such as:

• Days
• Days360
• Banshee
• Benkei
• Basspara
• Firstcast

These span different price and performance levels. Bass fishing is historically significant to Major Craft because the company was founded during a period when bass fishing and imported bass tackle were particularly popular in Japan. Founder Tsugio Mori specifically discussed the high prices associated with imported tackle during that era.

If there is one area where Major Craft has become particularly recognizable internationally, it is saltwater lure fishing. Its product portfolio covers a huge range of saltwater techniques:

Shore Fishing

• Shore jigging
• Light shore jigging
• Seabass
• Flatfish
• Rock fishing
• Ajing
• Mebaring
• Black porgy/chinu

Squid Fishing

• Eging
• Tip-run eging
• Specialized squid fishing

Offshore

• Jigging
• Slow-pitch/vertical applications
• Tuna and larger-game applications
• Various offshore jigging styles

The 2024 catalog, for example, lists dedicated families such as Cross Ride, Giant Killing, Aji-Do, Egizust, Tide Drift, Flatreck and Rockliver, illustrating how deeply the company divides its saltwater lineup by technique.

Giant Killing is one of Major Craft’s major offshore/saltwater rod families. The name itself reflects its intended purpose: dealing with larger and more powerful fish. The lineup has included different generations and specialized models, including Giant Killing 1G and 5G products. These rods are aimed at anglers doing more demanding offshore fishing rather than casual light lure fishing.

Major Craft is not merely a rod company. Its lure business has become a major part of the brand. One of its best-known lure families is Jigpara.

Jigpara

Jigpara is a Major Craft metal-jig family and one of the products most strongly associated with the brand. The broader Jigpara family includes multiple specialized forms, including:

• Jigpara
• Jigpara Micro
• Jigpara TG
• Jigpara Vertical
• Jigpara Spin
• Jigpara Surf
• Jigpara Wind

The company has also developed numerous other metal-jig families, including Cross Ride Jig, First Jig, and others.

First Jig

First Jig is another good example of Major Craft’s philosophy. It is designed as a relatively easy-to-use, ready-to-fish metal jig, with pre-rigged hooks and a body shape intended to reduce the effort needed for jigging. Major Craft specifically markets it as suitable for both beginners and experienced anglers. This illustrates an important aspect of Major Craft’s product-development philosophy: Make specialized fishing techniques easier for ordinary anglers to access.

Major Craft has also developed its own ZOC hook system. ZOC is designed around penetration and hooking performance, particularly in situations where the angler may have difficulty transmitting enough force through the tackle. The company uses very light hook construction and a specialized coating process intended to reduce weight and water resistance while maintaining durability. This is significant because it shows Major Craft increasingly moving from simply making rods and lures toward developing complete tackle systems.

One interesting part of Major Craft’s business model is its emphasis on manufacturing control. Major Craft America describes the company as a vertically integrated manufacturer, operating its own factories and maintaining control over engineering and development.

A Japanese investment-company profile records that Major Craft began operating a Vietnam factory in 2012, part of its strategy to increase production and expand overseas distribution.

This is important when discussing “Made in Japan” versus “Japanese brand.” Major Craft is a Japanese brand. However, not every Major Craft product is necessarily manufactured in Japan. Major Craft has used overseas manufacturing as part of its strategy for producing relatively sophisticated fishing equipment at competitive prices. That distinction is important when comparing Major Craft with Japanese manufacturers whose products are specifically positioned around Japanese domestic production.

Major Craft rods frequently use components from Fuji Kogyo, one of the world’s best-known fishing-rod component manufacturers. For example, Major Craft’s Firstcast shore-jigging rods specify Fuji guides, while Finetail models also use Fuji guide systems. Fuji Kogyo is itself a major Japanese fishing-component company, famous for rod guides, reel seats and related components.

This matters because rod performance isn’t determined only by the blank. Components such as:

• Guides
• Reel seats
• Grips
• Thread wrapping
• Tip guides

also influence weight, balance, durability and line management.

A useful way to understand Major Craft is to imagine the fishing-rod market as a pyramid.

Entry Level

Firstcast / Basspara / similar products

↓

Mid-range

Solpara / Crostage / Benkei / various specialized models

↓

Upper-mid / performance

Triple Cross / Days / specialized 5G families

↓

High-performance / specialist

5G premium families / specialized offshore and enthusiast models

↓

Boutique/custom territory

Other specialist Japanese rod makers and custom builders

Major Craft’s traditional strength has been the bottom-to-middle and middle-to-upper-middle portions of this pyramid, where anglers care strongly about performance but don’t necessarily want to pay flagship-level prices.

Major Craft is no longer exclusively a Japanese domestic brand. Its American operation describes the brand’s products as being distributed to anglers across:

• Europe
• Russia
• Asia
• Australia
• South America

in addition to North America. The Japanese website itself has an Overseas section and lists international distribution activities. This international expansion has been particularly successful in areas where Japanese-style lure fishing has become popular. Examples include:

• Shore jigging
• Light jigging
• Eging
• Ajing
• Seabass fishing
• Rock fishing
• Micro jigging

There are several reasons for the brand’s popularity.

Price-to-performance

This is probably the single biggest factor. Major Craft was built around the idea that anglers shouldn’t have to pay an extreme price to obtain good performance.

Specialized rods

Rather than selling one generic rod for “saltwater,” Major Craft offers rods for highly specific applications.

Large selection

An angler can start with a basic Major Craft rod and remain within the brand as they progress into specialized fishing.

Japanese design philosophy

The company understands Japanese fishing techniques particularly well, including techniques that are less familiar to Western tackle manufacturers.

Strong lure portfolio

Jigpara and other metal-jig families complement the rods and have helped make Major Craft a recognizable lure brand as well.

Global distribution

The brand has expanded beyond Japan and become increasingly familiar to international anglers.

Major Craft is particularly interesting because it represents a modern generation of Japanese fishing-tackle companies. Traditional Japanese rodmaking has a very long history, including handmade bamboo rods and highly specialized regional craftsmanship.

Major Craft represents almost the opposite end of the spectrum: modern materials + industrial production + specialized engineering + accessible pricing.

It doesn’t try to reproduce the traditional handmade wazao model. Instead, it applies Japanese attention to fishing technique and equipment design to modern:

• Carbon-fiber blanks
• Synthetic materials
• Modern reel seats
• Advanced guide systems
• Specialized lure designs
• Production engineering

The result is a brand that is distinctly Japanese in its approach to fishing while being fundamentally modern in its manufacturing philosophy.

If summarized in a few words, Major Craft’s brand identity is:

“Japanese-designed, technique-specific fishing tackle with strong performance for the money.”

It isn’t primarily about luxury. It isn’t primarily about tradition. It isn’t primarily about professional tournament prestige. Instead, Major Craft’s identity is much closer to: “Give anglers the right tool for the exact fishing technique, without making the price unnecessarily high.”

That philosophy can be seen across its enormous range of rods and lures.

Major Craft is sometimes compared with Shimano and Daiwa, but the companies have somewhat different identities.

Major Craft is therefore better thought of as a specialist lure-fishing brand rather than simply a smaller version of Shimano or Daiwa.

Major Craft’s Main Strengths

Excellent price-to-performance

This is the company’s historical foundation and remains its strongest selling point.

Very broad technique coverage

You can find rods for extremely specific applications.

Strong saltwater expertise

Especially relevant to Asian and Japanese-style lure fishing.

Good entry-level products

A beginner can buy into specialized fishing without spending a fortune.

Progressive technology

The newer 5G products demonstrate that Major Craft is not content to remain an entry-level brand.

Strong lure selection

The brand has developed a substantial lure and terminal-tackle ecosystem.

International availability

Its products are now available in many fishing markets around the world.

As of 2026, Major Craft continues to operate from Osaka and remains heavily focused on fishing rods and lure products. Its current website covers bass, seabass, eging, shore jigging, flatfish, rock/light game, offshore fishing, trout and other specialized categories. The company continues to introduce new products; its 2026 website, for example, highlights new products and updated models, including new eging-related and trout products.

Its strategy today appears to be moving in two directions simultaneously:

1. Continue making affordable, accessible tackle.

2. Move further upward into technically sophisticated and enthusiast-oriented equipment.

Finetail Works Tune is a good example of the second direction, while Firstcast represents the first.

If someone in the fishing community mentions Major Craft, the products/categories most likely to come to mind are:

Rods

• Shore jigging
• Light game
• Ajing
• Eging
• Seabass
• Rock fishing
• Bass
• Trout
• Offshore jigging

Lures

• Jigpara
• First Jig
• Cross Ride
• Micro jigs
• Various egi and soft-lure families

Terminal Tackle

• ZOC
• Assist hooks
• Blades
• Jig accessories

These products together make Major Craft considerably more than a “fishing rod company.”

Major Craft is one of the more interesting Japanese lure-fishing brands because its entire history is built around democratizing fishing performance.

The company was founded with the belief that good fishing tackle shouldn’t automatically be extremely expensive. That principle led it to specialize in technique-specific rods and lures, while maintaining a broad range from beginner equipment to sophisticated enthusiast products.

Today, the brand occupies a distinctive position:

Japanese engineering and fishing-specific design, combined with aggressive attention to value.

Its biggest historical strength is probably price-to-performance; its biggest modern strength is the combination of specialization + increasingly advanced rod technology.

If Shimano and Daiwa can be thought of as enormous full-line fishing empires, Major Craft is more like a highly focused Japanese lure-fishing specialist that has grown into a global brand.

In one sentence, Major Craft is a Japanese fishing-tackle manufacturer founded in the early 2000s that built its reputation by producing specialized, high-performing lure-fishing rods and lures at accessible prices, and has since expanded into a global brand covering everything from beginner gear to advanced 5G and specialist equipment.

1. 会社概要 – メジャークラフト｜Major Craft Web
2. Who we are – Major Craft America
3. Interview with Major Craft fishing rods, Japan — Henry Gilbey