TRAVELING TO JAPAN! Recommendations for shops for cartridges?

And yet, the vast majority of all cartridges are made in Japan or elsewhere in Asia,

Do you have any data or just guessing? I'm going with guessing.

Ortofon is the largest in the world

Rega is made in the UK

BUT... this debate is really pretty stupid. You made a claim you can’t back up yet you steadfastly stand by it. And I can’t completely refute it, but in any case, you can’t back up what you said so why do you keep defending it ?

Good Day

so back to the original question. You also need to consider the compliance of your arm.

You say you are using MM cartridges so do you have a phono stage that  can handle the moving coils some are recommending? If the phono stage can take an MC, does your system have enough gain to work with a much lower output MC than your current MM? 

it's a system

Thanks @herman! i do have a phono stage that can handle lower compliance and adequate gain for the few cartridges suggested so far. 
 

@njcardave 

Look for DS Audio optical cartridges. I have the entry level DS E1. FANTASTIC.

+1.  It's in a totally different price class than Nagaoka, and needs a proportionately top shelf system to really be heard, but I've heard the DS W3 on a great rig, and it's performance is something special.

Herman, why are you so agitated? Maybe I’m wrong. So what? The statement is totally inconsequential. No need for conniptions. It would be hard to prove or disprove because many brands outsource their cartridges. If you want so badly to be right in saying I’m wrong, I give. You’re right.