Strange, little man from occupied Japan measures 3 in tall. He looks a bit like Churchill...These pieces date back to 1940s and a bit later. The more unusual pieces are highly collectible. "Occupied Japan" (OJ) is a term used for the time period from 1945 (after World War II) through April 25, 1952; it was during this time that the Allies "occupied" Japan.
As Japan needed to rebuild their economy after the war, part of the agreement to allow them to export goods out of their country was that they had to mark 50% of all items with "Occupied Japan" or "Made in Occupied Japan."
This could be done with a paper label, cloth label (as on scarves, doilies, clothing), engraved, handwritten or stamped. Thus, you may come across things, such as a salt and pepper set, where only one of the pair is marked OJ and the other will just have "Japan" on it.
