Yep, every piece of military equipment was the personal property of the emperor. After the surrender they ground the mums off of guns etc, prior to surrendering them so as to not insult the emperor. Mine was a "capture".As Jeepnik said, the stamp on your Arisaka is a Chrysanthemum, it's the official Royal Mark of the Emperor which was stamped on all Jap military arms. Civilian weps I'm not sure about.
I misinterpreted Chad's response . It not the asterisk but maybe something similar. He had one and was told or recalls it was for some unknown type of test. The hardness test seems plausible. I met a QC consultant of Ruger's long ago at a shareholders' meeting. I'm trying to get some info from him if possible. He 's retired but was local to me, now lives in MaineChad (rene) indicates it is indeed an asterisk gun previously called a U gun etc commonly called a second, used to also mark S. Surprised a subscription gun would not be "perfect"