If you spend any time on social media,
you know that Japanese stationery is having a moment.
In this video, we’ll explain why Japanese stationery
consistently dominates Top 10 lists worldwide
and show you some of our favorite items.
What makes Japanese Stationery special?
1. Quality, Design, & Innovation
Japanese stationery is known for its thoughtful design and excellent quality.
This is because Japanese customers demand a lot from their stationery.
Dedicated teams of designers and engineers scrutinize the smallest details
to make products that are practical, attractive, and reliable.
Even inexpensive items are usually well made.
2. A focus on writing
Some of these high expectations come from Japan’s strong tradition of calligraphy.
Japanese calligraphy requires superior writing instruments
that can handle subtle stroke endings like tome, hane, and harai.
Japanese writing uses characters,
some of which are very detailed and can look similar to each other.
So even ordinary Japanese writing benefits from pens with specific characteristics.
They often have astonishingly tiny tips
that are far smaller than anything you would find from Western manufacturers.
Finer pen tips are naturally scratchier,
but Japanese manufacturers have engineered pen tips and inks for a smooth writing experience.
Now let’s take a look at the different types of pens
and other stationery Japan has to offer.
Gel Pens
Although gel pens are now commonplace,
they were actually invented very recently by Japanese manufacturer Sakura.
They developed an ink that leveraged a unique property of gels:
they are solid at rest and liquid when disturbed.
Sakura also re-engineered the ball at the tip of the pen to have a smoother surface
that would accommodate the new ink.
The Gelly Roll was born,
paving the way for other popular gel pens like the Pilot Juice
and Pentel EnerGel.
Ballpoint Pens
Ballpoint pens are often thought of as cheap and disposable,
but Japanese pen makers have taken them to another level.
Uni’s Jetstream ballpoint pen contains pigmented, low-viscosity ink that writes so smoothly.
It’s even available in a super-fine 0.28 millimeter tip size.
That's incredible!
Zebra took a different approach with the bLen
by engineering its body to eliminate all the little rattles that can distract us from writing.
It provides the ultimate stress-free writing experience.
Brush Pens
Japanese is traditionally written with brushes but they aren’t easy to carry around.
Enter the brush pen, or fude pen.
It combines a brush tip with a built-in ink reservoir.
The tips can be made with felt, synthetic hair, and even real hair.
Each material offers different characteristics for calligraphers and artists.
In recent years, calligraphers have adapted felt-tip brush pens like the Tombow Fudenosuke
to create modern brush lettering.
Another type of brush pen that’s great for artists is the water brush.
It features a barrel that you can fill with ink or water, with a brush tip attached.
Water brushes allow you to paint whenever and wherever you want.
Kuretake offers the most tip sizes and styles.
Fountain Pens
Japanese fountain pen manufacturers make their nibs in-house,
allowing them to carefully control their quality.
You don’t have to break the bank to experience a high-quality Japanese fountain pen.
One of our favorite budget-friendly pens is the Platinum Preppy.
It writes smoothly and lets you try out a beginner fountain pen for less than five dollars.
Highlighter Pens
Japanese highlighters offer all sorts of features,
from the soft pastel-colored Zebra Mildliners
to the unique dual-tipped Kokuyo Mark+ Highlighters.
Uni’s Propus Highlighter even has a window in the tip
so that you can see exactly what you’re highlighting!
Mechanical Pencils & Erasers
Japanese mechanical pencils use finer leads than Western models.
The smallest-tipped mechanical pencil we’ve encountered
is the 0.2 millimeter Pentel Orenz,
but most Japanese pencils come in a wide range of sizes.
They constantly attempt to solve problems through engineering.
The two most famous pencils are the Zebra DelGuard,
which tackles lead breakage,
and the Uni Kuru Toga, which combats lead dullness.
You can’t talk about pencils without mentioning erasers.
Japanese erasers feature technology that allows you to erase with a light touch
and roll eraser dust into easy-to-manage clumps.
Just look for erasers that mention light-erasing and dust-gathering.
Pencil Cases
Where the pens are stored is just as important as the pens themselves.
Japanese manufacturers like Lihit Lab
add a variety of compartments and loops in their pencil cases to keep everything organized.
Another popular pen case is the Sun-Star Delde:
the top slides down to convert it into a pen cup.
Paper & Notebooks
Japanese paper products intended for everyday use
are typically much higher quality than what most Americans are used to.
Kokuyo’s Campus paper is meant for school use,
but its smoothness and resistance to bleed through and feathering
also make it appropriate for fountain pens.
Fountain pen users all know about Tomoe River paper:
its exquisitely smooth surface showcases inks to their full effect.
Other paper brands we love include Apica, Maruman, and Midori.
Office Supplies
Japanese designers also strive to make humble office supplies a little bit better.
Here are just some of the items that we love:
The adorable Midori Mini Cleaner Two efficiently cleans up eraser dust from your desk.
The Nakabayashi Magnetic Bookmark Ruler
can be attached to any notebook as a bookmark,
and expanded to use as a ruler.
The Raymay Pencut Scissors make sure you will never be without scissors!
They’re slim and portable for you to tuck away in a pen case or bag.
There’s so much more to discover about Japanese stationery that we couldn’t cover,
so be sure to watch our other videos and subscribe to JetPens channel.
You can find all of the items we mentioned over on our website at JetPens.com.
Thanks for watching!