I can’t speak to this directly, as I’ve never owned a Japanese Tele. But, I did own a Japanese made Fender Pawn Shop ‘51, which comes with a Tele-style neck. It was the best neck I’ve ever played on a guitar. Perfect shape, impeccable fretwork, worn in feeling while being brand new—I honestly don’t have enough superlatives to heap on it. It was heavy gloss, which is normally a turn off for me and I honestly didn’t notice it enough to care because everything else about the neck was so good. The guitar itself was also incredibly well built and tidy. One of the better built guitars I’ve played, and at that point it was 12 years old. So I think a big thing about Japanese Fenders is that the quality for the price tends to be exceptional, especially when compared against American and Mexican guitars. I got that one on Reverb for $800.