I'm wondering if Panasonic made their own bicycle frames . Specifically if
they made the frame for my 86 DX5000.

Yep! They made some Schwinns too.

Yes.

My next question would be how did their frames compare with other makers frames, such as Miyata?

Quite favorably, in fact you can still get a brand new Panasonic frame, from their US distributor, Yellow Jersey, in Arlington WI.
Tim

Panasonic, like the other very large Japanese frame/bicycle mfrs, makes/made a very wide range of product from bottom-of-the-line to high-end custom workshop frames. The three traditionally biggest mfrs, Bridgestone, Panasonic and Miyata, all compare pretty favorably to each other. I think Panasonic had the highest production volume, followed by B'stone, and Miyata was significantly smaller.

Panasonic did more OE production for other brands than B'stone/Miyata.

Typically the models and product range offered in the US market was different from what was made for the Japanese and other export models, similar to what we see for Raleigh and Peugeot.

By '86 the Japanese mfrs were all having to offshore production of lower-end frames/bikes to Taiwan, after the yen value soared, and ever year more and more product needed to be outsourced. I doubt there was ever a Taiwan-built DX5000, by the time Panasonic USA couldn't be competitive with higher-end product they stopped importing bicycles, in '89. They had to wait until founder Matsu****a passed away, since he founded the company based on bicycle-related products. B'stone also closed their US subsidiary by '94 or so. I think Miyata hung in another couple/few years, but were out of the US market by '99 or so?

None of these makers really have any presence in the US market anymore. If Yellow Jersey is still getting Panasonics, he's getting them from dealer friends in Japan, not direct from Panasonic. Not that there's anything wrong with that at all, just pointing out that Panasonic isn't exporting anything other than e-bikes directly to the US market, afaik.

Kinda weird thing about Miyata, and I never really got much info on it, but the President of Miyata was always formerly a high-ranking Panasonic exec. Back in my time in Japan there was very little corporate job-hopping, so that was a pretty strong indicator that Panasonic had a very tight connection to Miyata, very possibly/likely owned a chunk of the company?

From the Wikipedia page on Miyata:

Panasonic Corporation, for a period the manufacturer of National and Panasonic brand bicycles, was Miyata's largest shareholder from 1959 until 2008, when it sold its remaining stake in Miyata

Thanks for that! Suspicions confirmed....

I wouldn't think that a DX5000 from this era would be contract manufactured but it will be easy to confirm from the serial number.

If we're going to be fastidious, I don't think that Panasonic made any frame till 2008. Previously, Panasonic-branded frames were made by a company whose name started with "Matsu" and continued in a way that greatly upsets the software used for this website (or did, the last time I tried). Nothing sneaky about this, as "Panasonic", "National" and "Technics" were all brands owned by this company (unmentionable in polite American society). For the Japanese market, at least, earlier frames and bikes were branded "National" -- I think until some time in the 1970s, but I'm not at all sure.

I'm happy with my own Panasonic frame, built in 2011 according to the special order of some person unknown to me. The "Piece of" -- sorry, I mean the Panasonic Order System is explained here, though only in Japanese. Very many options are available. The company's uninterest in export has a minor advantage: no "lawyer lips" (or anyway none on my fork). I've never possessed a fork that has them, and I'm still not used to them: whenever I go about removing anyone else's front wheel, I'm momentarily perplexed by the way the wheel doesn't fall out as it should.

The frame # is 6A07243

They made excellent frames!

JJ

Yes, that is the seral number format used by Matsu****a/National. Your frame was not contract manufactured. It indcates that the frame was manufactured during January 1986.