Fender set up Fender Japan officially around March 1982 and had 2 Japanese Music companies handling the ordering and distribution. The 2 companies (were/still) are Yamano Gakki (Gakki means musical instrument company) and Kanda Shokai. Yamano is a musical instrument wholesaler/retailer with its own retail outlets and Kanda Shokai is just a musical instrument wholesaler with no retail outlets of its own. Yamano and Kanda Shokai do not make guitars, they order them from Japanese guitar factories such as FujiGen and then they distribute them through retail outlets. Yamano distributes them through its own retail outlets and also various other retail outlets. Kanda Shokai distributes them at various retail outlets including the Ishibashi chain of retail outlets. The Japanese guitar factories that have made Fender Japan guitars are FujiGen, Terada, Tokai (Tōkai_Guitars) and Dyna.
When Fender Japan first started around 1981/1982 the manufacturing contract was going to go to Tokai but Fender made a last minute change and chose Fujigen instead. Tokai do have the manufacturing contract now (2007). FujiGen made a lot of the classic Japanese Ibanez's and so did Terada. Tokai is a musical instrument manufacturer with their own brand of guitars but they also make guitars for other companies. FujiGen usually make solid body guitars and Terada usually make Semi Acoustics and Acoustics. FujiGen made all the early Fender Japan solid body models and Terada made the Japanese Gretsch's and still do. Tokai took over making Fender Japan solid body models from FujiGen in 1997 and make the current Fender Japan solid body models but do not export them. Dyna also make some current Fender Japan solid body models and export some of them. Dyna also make some of the current Gretsch models. Japanese Gretsch serial number prefixes JD=Dyna Gakki, JT=Terada, JF=FujiGen.
The difference between the "Made in Japan" MIJ and the "Crafted in Japan" CIJ models is to do with who was involved with the manufacturing of the guitars. According to a Fender representative it was in the Fender Japan contract that if there was any manufacturer change involving any part of the guitar then the logo would be changed from MIJ to CIJ. So if the manufacturer changed or the manufacturer outsourced some of the making then the logo would be CIJ. Some CIJ Fenders turn up around 1993 and this seems to be because FujiGen was expanding their factory to be able to handle additional contracts (such as the Orville by Gibson contract) and around 1993 outsourced some of the making to other Japanese companies for a while, resulting in a CIJ logo instead of a MIJ logo. The CIJ Fenders from 1997 onwards are because Tokai and Dyna took over the Fender Japan manufacturing contract from FujiGen resulting in a CIJ logo instead of a MIJ logo.
A timeline of Fender Japan
1982: Fender Japan starts production with FujiGen Gakki having the manufacturing contract. The "Made in Japan" (MIJ) logo is used.
1984: CBS sells Fender to its current owners and while waiting for a new USA factory to begin production, Fender Japan models and leftover USA stock were mostly sold in the USA for a few years.
1993: The first "Crafted in Japan" (CIJ) models start appearing for a while due to FujiGen outsourcing some of the manufacturing while it was restructuring.