Made (very cheaply) for JC Penney Dept. Stores c.1960? has original Toshiba tubes. Plugged it in and it works! (caps holding up) Uses only 22 watts of power. Lost to history, no info on web.

Somebody already defeated AC interlock tacking wires onto pins.

The holes in the back panel don't look like a safe place to insert any fingers, that is for sure.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

That crown logo on the front looks vaguely familiar, I will have to check my early Crown Radio Corporation of Japan mini tape recorder from the same era. Also looks like the Zenith crown and a few others. Would post war Japan resort to mimicking established brands I hear these sold for ~$8 so were an entry level radio for those who couldn't afford a transistor. Assembly workers probably only made a dollar a day in 1950's Japan.

Would post war Japan resort to mimicking established brands

Definitely. It was establishing a consumer manufacturing and export economy from nothing:

http://www.disegnodaily.com/features/the-story-of-design-japanese-post-war-design.

BTW: when this subject arises it's not unusual for somebody to raise the "Made in Usa" myth:

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/usa.asp.

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/usa.asp.

Hey that's pretty good, always wondered about talk in the 1960s of the town of Usa in Japan, this says it was an urban myth that they were marking products thus.

There's a town called Usa at the north east corner of Kyushu, Japan's 'Tasmania'. I've never heard the rest of this story before though so it is quite interesting. I couldn't imaging a firm in Denmark, WA trying that trick on the Danes or one in Bagdad, TAS trying it on the Iraqis.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

QUOTE: BTW: when this subject arises it's not unusual for somebody to raise the "Made in Usa" myth:

As if Americans wouldn't notice that it doesn't look like stuff made in the U.S.A.

I've heard this urban legend as well, but I don't think I've ever seen anything from that Japanese town.

today, Japan made stuff is usually good quality, if you want junk, China, or maybe places like Vietnam.
What will we do when we run out of third world countries to make cheap junk in....

The OP's Japanese radio looks to be better quality than one I have.

Once China has things like unions, a WorkCover Authority, a standards association, duty of care legislation, fair pay and has relaxed import tariffs across the board like most western nations have done then it is likely that South America or Africa will take over the manufacturing of goods.

This is what I still do not understand about some peoples' loathing of supporting the car industry in Australia via subsidies. People often say they don't want their taxes going into the coffers of our car factories but in most years these operations run either on the dot or at a loss, so there's no profit shifting to overseas parent companies anyway. What the subsidies do is simply keep our fellow Australians in a job. The cost for the current subsidy regime?: A lousy $19.00 per taxpayer.

Now that the government has decided not to renew the subsidy programme we have seen Holden, Ford and Toyota prepare to close their factories and become sole importers like Nissan and Mitsubishi have done in the last twenty years. It's not just the car assembly operations that are affected though. Everything from component makers, mining companies, raw material processors, banks and sandwich shops will close up in the various industrial parks where they are located. With the car makers gone, there is no more consumption - it's as simple as that in a post-industrial world.

And how much of that $19 per annum do we see back in our pockets? Not one red cent. It's now being pissed up against the wall by the current government to pay off the horrendous debts raked up by the previous one. In addition to that there will be an extra 50,000 people on the dole in the next two years as the Big 3 wind up their operations and move to just being brand names for crap made in sweatshops.

I guess the people of the US have seen something similar happen to Detroit - once a powerhouse of manufacturing and mostly a wasteground now.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

The crown and the crest with the P is the JCPenneys Penncrest brand logo from the early 1960's. JCP Penncrest radio products were made to order firstly in Japan, then later on Taiwan.

How does this radio sound?

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

There's a town called Usa at the north east corner of Kyushu

At early '60s Qld school, cheap click on-click off Biros had tiny 'usa' on plastic, kids would say "there are no dots after the letters, it's a place in Japan they named Usa to deceive"

The crown and the crest with the P is the JCPenneys Penncrest brand

Thanks, does have a vague ring to it, couldn't see the small P on my own photo! Queen St Brisbane has a Penneys building, look up and you'll see the name even today. If it was a Pennys store, it must have closed during the 1960 recession?

How does this radio sound?

I found it in the attic when climbing over junk. Bought it down and decided to gamble by giving it the present day standard 120v - its maximum rating. The half wave thermionic rectifier would ensure a slow ramp up of the HT hopefully. It hummed, buzzed and fizzled a bit but the hum faded (did the Electro reform?).

Looking for a station, the direct drive tuning gang was noisy when turned (dusty plates) but stations came in. Its sound quality is more suited to talk radio than music as there is a peak in response at around 3 to 3.5kHz which adds a sharp but fatiguing clarity to voice intelligibility. There is no bass and nothing over 4.5 or 5kHz given its sharp IF, small output transformer with a .005µf 600v cap across primary, and absence of negative feedback. The 4" speaker is quite good with ~0.5" voice coil and corrugated surround - capable of much better sound.

Coupling into pentode output is .01µf 600v for bass roll off. All foil caps and IF transformer are Aiwa brand - good quality, as there is no output plate red glow in the dark, but it and the rectifier run hot as the cheap direct-to-AC-line design runs components close to their limits? There is a .05µf 900v foil cap (seen in picture) across AC line after switch and there is no regard for which is Neutral or Hot as it has a symmetrical (reversible) AC Japanese plug.