I agree to some extent about Japan being the China of the 70’s. It was also Taiwan making poor stuff then too as I recall. Now, they are both considered better than China quality.
The tap and die handles are definitely not the highest quality and finish but the are quite good compared to the Chinese set I have. The dies and taps are much, much better than the newer Chinese stuff. Tough but not too brittle from my early experience with them. For the price I’m happy.
Now for a decent metric set….