prolly because Howa sounds asian and most gun owners are pro-american. The first timeI heard of Howa I instantly thought "Asian Knock-off of some other better brand". I know that it wasnt right to assume that after looking at it, but thats the first thing that popped into my head after looking at all of the other english-like named brands such as Weatherby, Remington, Winchester, Marlin, Cooper, Springfield, Smith & Wesson, etc. Just a bad assumption on my part, but im sure thatsome others have thought the same thing when gun shopping. Especially considering many people think that any gun, other than the brand their father owned, is junk.