I think I know the period you are referring to, in 1984/5 CBS sold Fender to the employees of the factory and it was renamed Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, during this period when they were waiting for a new factory to be built the Japanese manufacturing filled the gap left from the American factory but these guitars were made by the FujiGen Gakki factory who started making the Fender Japan line of guitars in 1982.

They were some really good guitars and good bang for your buck on the second hand market.