A brief history of the Nakata Reproductions is in order. Mr Tadao Nakata, himself a former soldier of the Imperial Army, began in the late 1970's to reproduce some items for his own personal collection. At that time very large quantities of original uniform items were available, raincoats, wool trousers and so on. Mr Nakata used these items as a material source for helmet covers, puttees and other items. Since that time the Nakata offering has grown to include nearly all items of equipment & uniforming of the Imperial Army & Navy of WWII. However, quantities in some instances are extremely limited. In the case of the Steel Helmet only 1000 examples were produced and the die was lost. Recent major motion picture productions featuring the Pacific War have brought quantities of Nakata replicas into the United States and the items we sell are production over runs.