Unfortunately Toshiba stopped making incandescent bulbs last year due to declining sales in Japan and to encourage more efficient lamps such as cfls and leds.
I think that inside printing are unique to the japaniese lamps, since all other lamps outside japan, have just a regular outside printing.
Also, this lamp have a white finish instead of frosted, as accepted in Europe, meaning that the reflector inside it is actually useless (This result could be seen on Osram HQL-R Deluxe 80W, which have the phosphor in the front of the lamp and nearly 180deg beam angle.
I think that a ban of the least efficient lights sources in Japan, willn't be announced in the near future for several reasons:
1. The clear mercury lamps dominates almost all Japan's exterior lighting, despite their horrible color quality and CRI, efficiency of <45 lm/w, and this is because of their high color temperature which is extremely popular in almost any application in Japan.
2. Despite their much less lumen efficiency then incandescents (<10lm/w) and considerably higher prices then even the average CFLs, clear 100W SBMV lamps are kidnapped from the shelves in Japan, and can be found even in supermarkets in Japan, from the above reasons.
3. While HPS lamps with internal ignitor will be banned in the EU in the future and will be limited to up to 70W, these type of lamps accounts for all HPS installations in Japan, even in situation that an internal ignitor isn't required, is disadvantage and/or have no additional major benefits, cost and maintenance (For example high wattage installations in floodlights and/or lanterns of 250W-1000W).
Some Chinese lampmakers also do inside etches. American lamps also had inside etches many years ago.
I agree using inside coatings is terribly inefficient in reflector lamps, I think the Japanese manufacturers were required to use such coatings in recent years for environmental reasons. They did make inside frosted bulbs until at least the80s.
I think incandescent lamps are slated to be phased out in Japan by 2012 but I don't know exactly. I do know fluorescent has been extremely popular there since WWII. I was told that in a hardware store, 70% of lamps on shelves are fluorescent in many shapes and a choice of three color temperatures.
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Also, this lamp have a white finish instead of frosted, as accepted in Europe, meaning that the reflector inside it is actually useless (This result could be seen on Osram HQL-R Deluxe 80W, which have the phosphor in the front of the lamp and nearly 180deg beam angle.
I think that a ban of the least efficient lights sources in Japan, willn't be announced in the near future for several reasons:
1. The clear mercury lamps dominates almost all Japan's exterior lighting, despite their horrible color quality and CRI, efficiency of <45 lm/w, and this is because of their high color temperature which is extremely popular in almost any application in Japan.
2. Despite their much less lumen efficiency then incandescents (<10lm/w) and considerably higher prices then even the average CFLs, clear 100W SBMV lamps are kidnapped from the shelves in Japan, and can be found even in supermarkets in Japan, from the above reasons.
3. While HPS lamps with internal ignitor will be banned in the EU in the future and will be limited to up to 70W, these type of lamps accounts for all HPS installations in Japan, even in situation that an internal ignitor isn't required, is disadvantage and/or have no additional major benefits, cost and maintenance (For example high wattage installations in floodlights and/or lanterns of 250W-1000W).
I agree using inside coatings is terribly inefficient in reflector lamps, I think the Japanese manufacturers were required to use such coatings in recent years for environmental reasons. They did make inside frosted bulbs until at least the80s.
I think incandescent lamps are slated to be phased out in Japan by 2012 but I don't know exactly. I do know fluorescent has been extremely popular there since WWII. I was told that in a hardware store, 70% of lamps on shelves are fluorescent in many shapes and a choice of three color temperatures.