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ZEN-NOH, (National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations)
Predecessor Zenkoren and Zenhanren
Founded 1972
Products agriculture machinery tractor
Website http://www.zennoh.or.jp/

ZEN-NOH, or the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations, is a cooperative formed to serve the agricultural industry from the producer to the consumer, and is based in Japan. Zen-Noh translates to "all farmers". The cooperative markets many items to both the end consumer, as well as to the producer. To the farmer, seed, chemicals and equipment are all marketed. The equipment used to be rebadged as Zen-Noh. This included Combine Harvesters, as well as tractors. The tractors were manufactured by various Japanese manufacturers, such as Kubota and Yanmar.

Zen-Noh was founded in 1972 from the merger of the Zenkoren and Zenhanren groups, both of which were founded in 1948.[1]

Grey-Market Tractors[]

In more recent years, Zen-Noh tractors have been exported to the USA and other countries, and are considered grey-market imports as the original manufacturers never intended for them to be sold outside of Japan. Oftentimes the parts for these tractors are unavailable to the consumers in these countries outside of Japan.

Zen-Noh tractors began being imported in the USA in 1984 by Mike Wallace of Wallace International Trading Co in California. By 1988, Zen-Noh's trademark had expired in the USA, and was picked up by Gamut Trading in 1998. In 1997, Kubota had won a trademark infringement lawsuit against Wallace International, their partners and dealers, including Gamut Trading, so that used Kubota tractors could not be imported into the USA; however, Zen-Noh branded tractors were not included in this. Gamut continued importing used Kubota/Zen-Noh, and changed any Kubota brands over to Zen-Noh. By the end of 1998, Kubota had sued Gamut and won, prohibiting them of continuing to do that.

The Zen-Noh brand was then licensed to Mike Wallace in 2002, and he began importing Yanmar-built Zen-Noh tractors, or rebadging Yanmars as Zen-Noh. Yanmar filed suit in 2004 to stop this practice, ending the Zen-Noh brand in the USA. The trademark has since re-expired as of 2009.[2]


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