Taiyo Yuden media is only manufactured in Japan. That's the easiest way to see who has made the media in the package, as no other manufacturer (to my knowledge) is currently manufacturing blank DVDs in Japan. By law, in the USA, products must carry the country of origin. (Laws in other countries vary.) This includes blank CDs and DVDs.
The cheap media is all made in places like China, Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc. For the JVC brand, cheap media also comes from Taiwan. (Note that "in general" decent media comes from Taiwan and India, just not in this case, in reference to the JVC brand.)
As per the last response, many stores call it "JVC Taiyo Yuden" simply to distinguish old stock JVC (non-TY) from the new stock JVC (TY).
Also remember that the people you tend to get on the phone are customer service reps -- and not people who have any intimate knowledge of the products. That's simply not their area. These phone operators and salesmen tend to read from scripts, rely on customer-supplied info (often erroneous), as well as simply guessing.
In the United State, Microboards is the official importer of TY media. If you want
the most authoritative answer, contact somebody there. Hopefully you won't end up with another clueless phone answerer, however.
They're at
http://www.microboards.com -- and if something has changed, they will know.
Like other companies in this recession, TY has been hit, too. They've scaled back production, lowered cost with some outsourcing duties (packing the Japan-manufactured media in China, for example), and are using tape wrap instead of costly spindles. Anywhere that they can cut -- excluding media quality -- they seem to have cut.
My only guess at JVC being used beyond TY media would be if they've succumbed to the same pressures as Verbatim, who now uses low-grade discs in their "Value Series" and "Life Series" packages. Only the DataLife, DataLifePlus and AZO-marked spindles now carry the high quality Mitsubishi (MCC, MKM) discs.
TY media is under the "JVC Advanced Media" label.
Possibly a new (and something I've not see or heard of) cheap series is being made? I really doubt it, but it's not outside possibility. I have several contacts that work directly with Microboards (too busy to ask myself), and can see what they know or can find out.
If it's any different than what's already posted here (TY=JVC only) then I'll be sure to reply again.
Thanks.