Mark N on Japanese Orders and Medals: Who and When

Medals of Asia

Mark N could be found on Sacred Treasure Orders, Showa-28 and Honor medals.

N stands for Nippon / 日本

In turn 日本 stands for

日本勲章製作株式会社

日本 - Japan
勲章 - Medal
製作 - Manufacturing
株式会社 - Corporation

Japan Medal Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was established on October 17, 1928.
The registered capital of the company was equal to 500,000 yen.

Unpunched marks.

Inside the cases with medals marked N one could find (from time to time) a paper wrapper with the name of the manufacturer.

日本勲章製作株式会社 - Japan Medal Manufacturing Corporation

昭和四年参月 - March 1929

Another possible dateon the wrapper is

昭和四年壹月 - January 1929

Medals of Asia

In addition to these two days of manufacturing Showa enthronement medals currently we have marks on the medals on honour.

January 28, 1930

The second known bar marked with N engraved with the date

February 18, 1930

Thus the empirically proven period of existence of the mark N on japanese orders and medals

[January 1929; February 18, 1930]

This established time period almost perfectly corresponds to the time frame of famous corruption scandal at the Decorations Bureau. In fact the main "villain" in this scandal (Hiroshi Nagashima - a relative of the Chief of Decorations Bureau) was the very same man who on October 17, 1928 established Japan Medal Manufacturing Company and later was involved in the scam of selling contracts for manufacturing of 1928 Showa Enthronement Commemorative Medal to several private workshops. Scandal erupted somewhere around late August/early September of 1929 and naturally put an end to the activities of Japan Medal Manufacturing Company (and any other private manufacturer of official government medals for that matter).