AUS-8
VG-10
ZDP-189
Aogami Super Blue
Not exactly sure but I think once swords were greatly discouraged in Japan because of post-war Americanism, all the artisans transferred their knowledge to knife-making.
The American steel industry (Crucible, Carpenter) heavily leverages Vanadium for the knife business. Japan went in the opposite direction, minimizing Vanadium content (generally) while utilizing Chromium to vary extents, depending on what is expected of the steel.
Vanadium offers a questionable advantage. It increases low-level sharpness longevity but makes the edge delicate, dramatically increases sharpening difficulty as well necessitating very expensive abrasive to cut the Vanadium. And the low-level longevity of the edge is not readily apparent when compared to something like ZDP-189 until after you cut cardboard repeatedly for an hour, which is obviously impractical and doesn't translate at all to any real world use.
The more I read about knives, the more I feel that the American steel industry went this route simply because most Americans don't give a shit enough about knives, they'll just throw it away and buy another one, are too lazy to even bother sharpening knives or are too dumb to see past the Marketing potential of trotting out a hitherto obscure metal as the new greatest thing ever. Thing is, just about all Vanadium steels were never intended for knives but for industrial applications like ball-bearing and bits.
Tellingly, European companies like Sandvik went the Japanese way for a while but were soon cucked by the American Vanadium hype.
I hope Japan remains independent from the disgusting Evil that America represents, but the recent Jew run Miss Japan fiasco makes me worried.
>pic-related = Aogami Super Blue