CD-R Factory Locations

Recently, I took a look at all the CD-R media available in CompUSA and Best Buy. I noticed that almost all of them say "Made in Taiwan." The exceptions are the FujiFilm media which are "Made in Japan" and the Verbatim DataLifePlus Azo which are "Made in Mexico." In my experience, Taiwan could mean Ritek or CMC. The Fujis (Japan) that I purchased were Taiyo Yuden.

Now the questions I have are:

1. Does the "Made in Japan" mean that the discs will definitely be made by Taiyo Yuden? In other words, are there other companies that have factories in Japan?

2. Does Taiyo Yuden have factories outside of Japan?
The reason I ask this question is because I have some Memorex 12x Professional/Platinum CD-R packaged in jewel case that say "Made in Taiwan."
Here are the disc details:
ATIP: 97m 24s 01f
Disc Manufacturer: Taiyo Yuden Company Ltd.
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
nominal Capacity: 656.40MB (74m 43s 00f / LBA: 336075)
From what I have seen, Memorex always has "Made in Taiwan" on their packages. Is this particular disc really made in Taiwan or Japan?

3. Is there any visible way (by looking at the package) to tell the difference between CMC or Ritek Taiwan discs?

4. I have some KAO Safekeeper discs made by Ricoh Company Limited. They say "Made in the USA". Are they still making CD-Rs and under what brand do they sell them if they do?

I don't expect someone to have answers to all of these questions but any comments on this subject would be appreciated.

 

Thanks, the info was very useful. Now I can tell the difference between Ritek and CMC by the packaging.