Alright everybody let's get started. I got this razor from the bay several years ago at an early point in my collecting. At the time I thought it was a Feather razor. But now I'm not so sure, I have found pictures of Japanese razors but none that look like this. The only writing on the bottom is the word Japan no other markings are present. Any ideas? Please excuse the picture quality I have a hand tremor and old iPhone.
I have a nearly identical razor to yours. The only difference I can see is mine has "JAPAN" stamped on the right side of the baseplate. I also purchased it thinking it might be a Feather razor. It took a while but I found pictures of a Feather razor that seems identical other than the baseplate markings. Both have 16 knurled sections on the main handle & 5 knurled sections on the TTO knob. The first photos are my razor... The second set of photos are of a Feather razor I found online which seems to be the same. At the very least our razors seem to be a Feather clone.
Sweet! I have never seen another one before. I have always been curious as to a year. Definitely a rarity.
Actually now that I look closer, the center bar mechanism on mine is solid vs. the folded 2-piece center bar mechanism on the Feather razor. Huh...never picked up on that before.
Rule of thumb with Gillette razors not including rebrands, they will say Gillette on them somewhere. If they don't, then they aren't a Gillette razor. As far as British Gillette razors sold in Japan, they were marked differently from ones sold in Anglo markets like England, Canada and Australia for example. The ones sold in Japan don't have any Made In England or any British Patent numbers marked on them while ones sold in Anglo markets do.
Besides a Feather razor being ruled out you can also rule it out being a Mark Cross since they say Cross Mark on the underside of the baseplate for this style razor and this one only says Japan in it's place. Same with a Super Doll since those say Super Doll on underside of the baseplate. There are more brands that copied this design in Japan but I don't know enough about them to say which it could be.
As an fyi here is what the markings will look like normally on a British made Gillette sold in Japan. This is a 60s era British flare tip 1pc razor. Notice the logo lettering is different from what you normally see. A similar style logo was used in other foreign markets like India,