In Japan, PDI has established itself as a manufacturer of paintballs and a supplier of paintball equipment. It was one of the first companies to introduce the Japanese to the sport of paintball. Due to restrictions on air powered guns, conventional .68 caliber paintball guns popular in the US and UK were illegal. To comply with the law they designed and built their own paintball guns using smaller paintballs and high pressure air systems.

The company started in “the late 1980s. PDI started off by making and researching paintball markers in Japan. As of now, (May 2005) PDI is the only company in Japan that officially makes paintball markers” says Nishizono.

Tomo Nishizono

Although paintball has been around since the 1980s it hasn’t gained the same amount of recognition in Japan as it has in the United States. “Unfortunately, paintball is not popular here in Japan.” Tomo explains “there are several factors why it is not popular. It is because there are no fields designated for paintball, and not many people know about paintball.” To address these problems PDI currently owns and operates several paintball fields and they “hope that paintball will gradually grow.”

PDI Factory

Since paintball and airsoft share some of the same concepts, it was not surprising that PDI made the leap into the airsoft market. “By researching the concept of ‘Air’ for paintball markers, we realized that the same concept applies to airsoft. Now, we even have a department especially for custom airsoft upgrade parts.”

PDI now manufactures a huge line of aftermarket products for airsoft guns. The company makes everything from inner barrels, to springs, internal parts, and cosmetic upgrades. All to satisfy the constant desire to modify and upgrade your gun.

PDI is the parent company for X-Fire (pronounced Cross-fire). “PDI is the custom parts maker and X-fire is the sales department.” X-fire started “4 years ago. We wanted to introduce PDI products to more people. In Japan, only airsoft stores in the cities carried PDI custom parts. People who live far away from the city had a difficult time getting our products. During that time, the Internet was commonly used by everyone, so we decided to have an online business. Now, we get orders from people all over Japan.”

The sales have steadily grown and the company now has “thirteen employees, eight people work in the factory and five people in the sales department.” “We currently are nationally stable and we cannot grow any further because we basically covered the key places in Japan. Lots of stores carry PDI parts. Our plan is to make more factories bigger outside of Japan and grow. We hope to grow more in the US.”

To meet the goals of marketing to a western audience, an English version of the website was launched “late last year. Our intention was to make the company bigger and let people worldwide know about PDI. Now we get orders from people all over the world.”

Out of all of the products PDI makes “the most popular product right now is the VSR parts. Our new cylinder with the latest technology is especially popular, and the 05 Inner Barrels are also very popular.”

PDI is always at the forefront of new ideas. The company receives input from the staff on what new products to create. However, “there are times when the idea starts from a player. Products like VSR 1st Sear, M733 Real Outer Barrel were products made from a customer’s request.” Tomo points out “since we own our own factory it is possible to make a little bit at a time and test the reaction from our customers.” If the response is good, it goes into mass production.

“Time used to create a product varies. When we get an idea, we sometimes plan and create the prototype in a day. Since we have our own factory we can start on a project and create prototypes really fast. However, some products take several months to create.”

Regarding copyrights, Tomo states “we do not mind if other companies try to copy our design. PDI quality is impossible to duplicate. Even if other companies tried to make the exact replica of our product, we can easily tell that it is not the same if we look at the appearance. Even if other companies were successful at making the exact same product, it would be more expensive than the actual PDI products. This is because not many companies own their own factories that they can work and create parts in Japan. Of course, we do put in some details so that we can always tell if the product was actually made by us.”

PDI uses many different materials in making their products. One of the problems they run into is “making stainless steel barrels. Carving stainless steel is very difficult and the blade used to carve it breaks often. The balance is very crucial because the more we make barrels, the more times we have to buy and change the blades.”

Tomo is happy with the current level of sales of PDI products in the US, but is “hoping that the market will continue to grow in the UK and the USA. We are doing great by working with friends at Impact Games and at other places. I would like to continue to increase the marketing of PDI products.”

Tomo plans to continue with more international marketing. “I would like to see more US events like the ASH BASH where Japanese people can also enjoy the game of Airsoft with the American people. We became a sponsor for ASH BASH in hopes of more people buying and using PDI/X-Fire products. We plan to continue to sponsor the ASH BASH to get more people to realize the quality of our products all over the world. Thank you very much, ASH.”

In the past, before the new laws were passed, Tomo states “a lot of games in Japan played with guns with 2.6J (528fps with .20 gram BB) and 3.0J (568fps with .20 gram BB). Unfortunately, policies became very strict when it was used for crimes. So, lots of guns used today are not that strong. I think playing with stronger guns are OK as long as people safely have fun.” He laughingly points out “I think it hurts so I prefer playing with 1J.”

When Tomo gets a break from work he likes to use “the STI series from KSC. I especially like the new STI EAGLES .5 HYBRID BLACK LIMITED. The reason why I like it is because of the black body and the purple grip combination. I really like the colorful ‘race gun’ look rather than a realistic looking gun. I also like the Type96. This rifle looks real, but the design looks so COOL!!!! I recommend adding the PDI ‘flute’ outer barrel. I made the PDI catalog and the PDI website, so the reason why it shows a lot of Type96 parts is because I personally love the gun.”

He says, “in Japan, there are a lot of playing styles and more variety of games held frequently. I believe this is because there is a long history of airsoft survival games in Japan than in America. I believe America will soon follow to play various types of airsoft games like in Japan.”

As for future plans, “we plan to make the M24. It is going to be a limited edition and we are going to make only several dozens of these. Upgrade parts are our biggest market. But we also plan to make the M40 and Remington type rifles. We cannot make stocks, so we are currently trying to find people who would make it for us. We are also looking for Non-Japan style stocks.”

Visit their website at:
http://www.x-fire.org/english/main.page/index.htm