Jelco tonearms closes


Takako Ichikawa of Ichikawa Jewel Co. (Jelco) announced he is closing the 100 year old company due to the impact of COVID-19 and an aging workforce.
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If to count into the list Jelco OEM business like current Ortofon tonearms a lot of ideas can be lost forever.
As any discontinued products they will stay on the used market for decades with some aftermarket parts for them (or custom made parts from third party vendors). No more new tonearms from Jelco :( 


Our son lives in Tokyo, and he has been working from his apartment for at least 6-7 weeks.  An established company like Jelco could certainly halt production temporarily or cut back to just doing repairs, without the extreme measure of going out of business entirely, it would seem to me on the surface.  I have to wonder whether there is some other motivation, but in any case, it's a loss to our hobby.  I worry more about the plight of hundreds of thousands of people who run the many thousands of tiny restaurants that are a part of what makes Tokyo such a great place to visit (and eat).  Dan says you can get carry-out here and there, but many restaurants are just closed up entirely.  He formerly used his kitchen to store clothing, but now he has had to clear off his stove for cooking, which he does not like to do.