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Japan versus China and Europe

In pigeon sport you sometimes hear or read things about which reasonable persons think: 'How can people be so naïve or stupid'.

I will give you one example. 

A Japanese had claimed in Taiwan and the mainland something like this:

'In Europe are no good pigeons any more, since Japanese bought them all.'

A Chinese wanted to hear my opinion about this.

Well,  I have seldom read such nonsense.

 

JAPANESE

In the 80-ies and early 90-ies the Japanese were indeed the biggest buyers of pigeons in Holland and Belgium.

80% of the birds that were exported went to Japan.  

Most Japanese are nice civilised people and paid the birds they bought correctly. But people in Holland and Belgium were often surprised what sort of birds they preferred:

Those were mainly winners of 2 day races.

But is a winner also the best bird?

Everybody knows how many lucky winners there are, especially in 2 day races.

Therefore Belgians prefer birds that make it on the day.

It even happened that those Japanese paid fortunes for a National winner that had not even won a prize in previous race.

When the wind is west the winner is mostly to be found East.

If in a race with Western wind a bird in the west of the country wins say the 5th prize its performance was better than the performance of the winner in the East since the latter  was advantaged by the wind.

So winners the Japanese wanted, in super birds that were often on top they were not interested initially.

The Japanese who bought such a lucky winner often advertised this bird later on with the result that other Japanese bought its brothers and sisters.

Can you believe that initially there were Japanese who thought winners that made say 1.600 mpm were better than winners that made 1.200 mpm since 'the first was faster?'

 

LATER ON

Many of these winners were not bought by pigeon men but by collectors.

Of course there is nothing against it but what happened was that the fight for winners became a kind of prestige:

'You have 5 National winners? I want to have 6.'

The real pigeon men that bought just winners soon found they wasted their money since they could not win decent prizes with the off spring.

Later on Japanese became smarter and bought consistent birds but did they buy ALL the good birds in Holland and Belgium?

Come on:

I often heard importers from the Far East say:

'European fanciers do not sell their very best birds or proven breeders and I cannot blame them. '

Of course Japanese also bought real good birds but claiming that they bought ALL

and left Europeans the left overs is B.S.

 

FURTHERMORE

Another mistake many Japanese made was to buy from the wrong fanciers, in other words the big names.

They thought fanciers who won say 15 prizes from races such as Sint Vincent were the real champions.

They seldom asked themselves how many birds such a big name entered.

But if he raced say 70 birds then 15 prizes is real poor instead of good.

The real champs were those who won 3 prizes from 3 birds they entered.

Or who won 5 prizes from 6 birds they entered. And the real champs perform well every year and do not win just one national in lucky weather.

 

AND THEN

Gradually the Japanese, who once controlled the market, lost the fight for birds and were beaten by Taiwanese.

Moreover many Japanese stopped buying since they were disappointed in the results of the off spring of birds that they bought.

The Taiwanese were more realistic and did not focus on just a winner but they were more interested in consistent birds that performed well in many races.

The mistake that Taiwanese make is that they are pedigree crazy and also fall for names, but they are no different from other foreigners: They make the same mistake.

 

RECENTLY

In recent years it is a well known fact that Chinese cannot be beaten in the fight for birds. Due to the sensational economic growth they have the budget and can afford far more money than most other foreigners.

The defect of Chinese is that they are Janssen crazy while Janssen is history inEurope. Of course Chinese also buy birds that are no good but to-day it cannot be denied that most real super birds are exported to China in case they are sold.

 

CONCLUSION

It stands to reason that the Japanese fancier who claimed all good birds are inJapan now if frustrated by the fact that many Chinese have a bigger budget to-day.

What is the truth?  

Bad pigeons are exported to Japan, Taiwan and the mainland.

And good birds are exported to those countries as well.

Since Chinese buy more birds they understandably by more good birds than others. 

Many dealers who come to Europe know that Europeans hate to sell their best birds.

And in case they do they are transferred to China in most cases.

I would not be surprised if the Japanese who said that nonsense is a dealer who wants to say:

Real good birds you should buy from him!