Yeah, BrakeMeister Thor is correct. The cheap bikes you see here in Japan are almost all made in Taiwan/China. Not 100% certain, but I believe Miyata, Panasonic and Bridgestone do make their bikes in Japan and the folders from those companies are really overpriced for what you get. I think Tyrell makes their bikes in Japan, but these are high quality and expensive minivelos not folders.

The deceptive marketing practice of applying a USA (or whichever) country's flag to a bike, when it's manufactured in another country, is really annoying. KHS is another company that does it. Illusion/perception is everything I guess. I know amongst the Japanese folder otaku they too have their prejudices and think a bike from certain foreign countries is better. They long for Birdys and Bromptons, and try to figure out why a Bike Friday is so hard to get in this country.

If I was the OP I'd abandon the idea of finding low priced Japanese folders to sell and just accept that Taiwan is now the center of bicycle manufacturing in the world now. The quality of the bikes varies enormously and with some careful research you might find some decent folding bikes that you can offer to Americans at a good price.

A better idea, perhaps, is to make Tikits available to Japanese folder otaku and try to import some Tyrells
for the niche US minivelo fanatic who might be willing to pay through the nose for the idea of riding a high quality Japanese bike and everything that is supposed to entail.

Could use an update (no Swift for one)but, this list of Bike manufacturing companies is helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ring_companies