Of course, everyone is right and I am wrong, I put the /National with the wrong company name - SORRY !!!
Panaracer = Panasonic Racer, oops. National = an early american name for Panasonic / Matsushita.
SO the big wired-on tire makers in Japan are Panaracer/National and IRC.
When Matsushita entered the american market, like japanese companies they were convinced their japanese name sounded "too japanese", so they at first chose "Panasonic", and later "National". The same thing happened with Nissan, which named themself Datsun (oh there's a really non-japanese sounding name ... NOT!) in the early 1970's, but they both ended up changing names.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA