Carl Wetzlar binoculars

I have two pairs of this make of binoculars:

I bought them assuming they were of German manufacture.  Nope.  They're made in Japan.  "Carl Wetzlar" was simply a made-up marketing name  or "Confuzaname" intended to imply German quality.  It seems based on Carl Zeiss' first name and the German city of Wetzlar where the real German Zeiss company has a facility.

If you look carefully at the front of these Japanese-made binoculars, you'll find a symbol which is actually a J combined with an L (for Light Machinery of Japan) followed by an E number which tells you where the body was made and a B number (which tells you which tell you the manufacturer of the finished instrument.  These were frequently different companies.  In fact, there were 345 Japanese companies in this business at one time!

My binoculars have the following information stamped on them:

If you visit the Japanese Manufacturers' Codes for Optical Products,  you can find out that:

JE-30  indicates that the body was made by Kofu Kogaku Kogyo Co. Ltd.  (maker of metalwork)

JB-31  means they were assembled by Muraki Koko Co. Ltd.  (maker of finished binoculars)

As I said, I've got two of these binoculars.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice...