Kawika Chee is an ultralight JDM obsessive who loves when random people message him about anything related to light tackle. He takes a light hearted yet educational stab at clarifying some of the mystique of JDM reel specs.

Kawika:

When it comes to labeling reels and lines, Japan and the United States are still at war.  Thousands of stateside anglers have been burned by the disparate language and rating system used on the Japanese market  – but instead of counting up these various and sundry disasters, I will focus on the case of angler we will call “N. C.” and his 700 dollar JDM reel/line buy gone wrong.  After all, a single bad purchase is a tragedy – a thousand; a mere statistic.

N.C. is a highly experienced offshore fisherman and gear fanatic with two 100+ ulua on his resume – and with respect to this purchase, this turned out to be a bad thing.  The over-confidence from a lifetime of handling prize fish, fast rods and faster women blinded him to the mistakes he would eventually make.  But he was not up against an easy task – when I look over our conversations, I count 39 texts discussing prospective JDM buys – and this was also in consultation with a local JDM-only gear dealer and the most knowledgeable Japanese-speaking angler I know.  The fact that this tragic buy could happen after so much discussion speaks to the difficulty of parsing the constellation of options the Japanese market presents.  This does not even consider the difficulty of getting a Japanese reel serviced, as Shimano America will not touch them.

N.C. wanted a high-end 3000 size Shimano reel that almost no one else on-island would have.  Though this article takes a joking – perhaps even abusive – stance toward the man, he does get style points for choosing the JDM Shimano Excense.  Placed between the Stella and the Twin Power in price point, this all-black beauty has garnered an excellent reputation in its short time on the market – especially among Japanese sea bass fishermen for which the reel was purpose-built.  NC ordered the 3000 MHG model, intending to use it with 10lb test Daiwa J-braid (PE 1.5).  He assumed that the spool would have the same capacity as American 3k spools. Unfortunately, “M” stands for Medium depth spool – by which they mean “stupid shallow” – less than 140 yards of line.

We are at risk of making bad JDM reel buys for two main reasons: A JDM reel of a particular size will often come in a large variety of different sub-models which differ from each other in spool depth and speed of retrieve (gear ratio).  Now this is critically important: the names of the reels come in this form: (model name)(model generation) (body size)(size) (spool depth)(gear ratio).  So, a Shimano Soare 3000 of the XR generation (generations are named arbitrarily to distinguish older and newer models) with a compact body, high gear ratio, super shallow spool would be the “Soare XR c3000 SSHG”.  The complexity of this naming system is a peek into the Japanese mind and a reminder that there is a very fine line between genius and madness.

On spool depth, Shimano Japan reels come in Super Super Shallow (SSS), Super Shallow (SS), Shallow (S), Medium (M – and still very shallow for our purposes) and Deep (indicated by the absence of any spool notation).  The Japanese seem to prefer shallower spools for most light applications for several reasons – one is that you don’t need as much expensive Japanese braid to fill it.  Another is that casting distance is improved by larger spool sizes due to reduced friction as line comes off the spool.  The last is that as line comes off the spool during a fight the drag tension increases due to the reduced diameter of the coil of line on the spool – large diameter shallow reels do not have as much of a problem with that.  

These spool depth disparities are HUGE.  For example, a 1000 deep spool will accommodate more line than a 2500 shallow. In an extreme case, the 500s spool will accommodate only 90 yards of 2lb fluorocarbon – and an American 500 may hold 190 yards.  To my knowledge, all Shimano light reel spools in the US are equivalent to the Japanese deep spool – but in Japan, deep spools are not even available in reel sizes under 3000.  This all necessitates that you get a sense of PE line diameter so that you can be sure you will have enough capacity for your purposes – we will discuss this later in this article.

All new light Shimano reels above 1000 size in the US come in two relatively high gear ratios – HG (high gear) or XG (extremely high gear).  However, to these options Shimano Japan adds Power Gear (PG – very low/slow) and a regular gear ratio (no notation – but between HG and XG). It is worth noting that very large American Shimano offshore reels do have PG options for cranking in the toughest pelagics.

In what I regard as an almost criminal move, some Shimano reels even come in a high-end and lower-end version – different reels entirely; the lower-end model often distinguished by the letters “bb”. 

This spool capacity confusion also happened in part because NC was not conversant in the most consistent and useful measure of braided line – “PE rating, which is the standard in Japan and the best stat to read to determine the true diameter, and, by extension, strength of Japanese braid.  PE stands for “Polyethylene” which refers to braid.  To get a sense of numbers using a familiar braid which is actually rated in PE, Daiwa J-braid 6,8, and 10 are labeled as PE 0.6, 1.0, and 1.5 respectively.  Most American market braids, including Shimano’s own Power Pro, are not labeled in PE, and seem to be rated in strength arbitrarily.  If NC had known about PE and had read the capacity of the MHG in PE rating, this could have been avoided entirely.

To complicate this further, when JDM braids list their strength in pounds, they generally use a different metric than pound test – max breaking strength – which is often used internationally including in Europe.  This rating is often double what we may expect from the line if rated in pound test – a JDM braid labeled as 8lb breaking strength may only be as strong as what we would expect from an American braid labeled at 4 pound test.

So deep is this confusion that my favorite local store stopped selling JDM Major Craft Dangan Braid because frustrated customers were breaking the tiny lines they expected to be much stronger.  Spiderwire is one of the few American braids labeled in both pound test and max breaking strength, for example, four and fourteen.  This confusion led Nick to purchase 8lb max strength PE 0.4 – what we may estimate at about 4lb test for a 3000 size reel paired with a rod capable of throwing 1 1/4 ounces!

Up to this point I have concealed NCs identity to avoid shaming him.  But my anger at him has built during the writing of this article and justice demands that I reveal that he is Nicolas Keoki Chang of 1322 Kinau St Unit 2,  Social Security *** ** 4772.  As much as teasing as there has been so far, this is written out of concern and care.  Given the price of JDM reels and the difficulty of servicing and returning them, it’s really more important than usual to take pay close attention when parsing this information before clicking.  Or, you could take best overall approach and the one I stick to myself – just don’t buy them at all.