Are old microscopes sold in Japan?

[stitchy.mitch]

I have a friend of mine travelling to Japan this week and is willing to look for old scopes for me. Does anyone know if old Nikon/olympus scopes are sold in shops there, or at auctions, or even kept in backrooms at factories?

I'd love to hear any leads on this as it could be a great opportunity to find something rare like an S-series interference phase contrast setup, or an L-ke scope.

[wstenberg]

Where in Japan will your friend be?

I've looked around when I've been there. There are some small shops in Akihabara that have some used microscopes. I don't remember seeing anything unusual or valuable. Mostly some of the more common Tiyoda microscopes from the 1950's.

I am guessing that the high end Nikon and Olympus were shipped to the US where there was a high demand.

There is a Japanese version of EBay that always has many microscopes listed. It's called Rinkya. The prices are high, but sometimes there are some bargains and unusual items. It's in Japanese. If you need help navigating it, or need the search terms in Japanese language, you can PM me.

If anyone else knows of any other sources in Japan, I would be very interested to know. I'm still trying to find my WWII Tiyoda folding army microscope!

[stitchy.mitch]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/132983422765

Perhaps this is what you're looking for?

[wstenberg]

Thanks for finding this.

That's close! I have two of those already. They are pretty nice and fairly compact.
I am looking for the pocket version. It's even smaller when it's folded up. It transforms into a nearly full size microscope. I haven't found one yet.
It's called the MKH

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/art ... da-MKH.pdf

[stitchy.mitch]

No problem on the find. That is a very interesting scope there, never seen anything like it and it would be very handy to have a complete one I'm sure, for field work, curiosity and otherwise.