Japanese pens and stationery

Japanese pens and stationery are pens and stationery which are designed and/or are manufactured in Japan. The include pens with very narrow nibs which are suited for writing Chinese characters (kanji) used in Japanese, especially complex ones with a high number of strokes.

Pens
Uniball Signo Bit 0.18 mm

One Japanese pen is the Uniball Signo Bit 0.18 mm gel pen. It has a tip is so thin it can write words on a grain of rice. The pen is suitable for writing in between lines or in tiny margins and comes in eight different colors. The Uniball Signo is also sold with thicknesses of 0.18 mm, 0.28 mm, and 0.38 mm.

Pilot Hi-Tec-C

Pilot Hi-Tec C pens are currently very popular in Japan. Though they have been around for more than a decade, they still rank as one of the top-selling gel pens in Japan as well as much of Asia. They are available in 0.25 mm, 0.3 mm, 0.4 mm and 0.5 mm sizes and come in over two dozen colors. The line also has a new "Waragi" color line (soft pastel colors) that were introduced in 2005.

Pilot Petit1

The Pilot "Petit1" is a fountain pen marketed to high school and college students. They are disposable or refillable with a pop-in ink cartridge.

Uniball Mitsubishi Alpha Gel Pen

The gel in this pen's grip is famous for its ability to keep an egg from breaking when dropped from a five feet height. The grip feel of this pen is squishy and soft.
Brush Pens
Traditional Japanese calligraphy is done with brush and ink. This is not particularily practical for office or school use. But one can now obtain brush pens such as those from . These pens have a soft, brushlike nib which provides a varying width mark, depending on angle and pressure.

Pencils

*Dr. Grip Pencil
*Pilot 2020 Shaker Pencil
*Alpha Gel Shaka Shaker
*etc.

These pens are known for using a shaking device to get lead out.

Manufacturers

*Mitsubishi-Uniball-Uni http://www.mpuni.co.jp (Japan) http://www.uniball-na.com (USA)
*Ohto http://www.ohto.co.jp/ (Japan) http://www.ohto.co.jp/english/english.html (English)
*Pilot http://www.pilot.co.jp (Japan) http://www.pilotpen.us/ (USA)
*Pentel http://www.pentel.co.jp/ (Japan) http://www.pentel.com/ (USA)
*Zebra http://www.zebra.co.jp/indexf.html (Japan) http://www.zebrapen.com/ (USA)

Common Pen/Pencils

*Mitsubishe-Uniball-Uni Alpha Gel Pen/Pencil (Regular, Slim, Regular HD, Colored HD, Shaka Shaker, Multi(2+1))
*Mitsubishi-Uniball-Uni Signo (Signo Pen, Signo DX, Signo Broad, Signo Bit, Signo Erasable Gel Pen, Signo RT, Signo silver metallic)
*Ohto Pure Sharp
*Ohto V-Gripper
*Pilot Dr. Grip Pen/Pencil (Regular, Mini, Ltd, Gel Ink, Center of Gravity(Soft Grip or Normal Grip)(USA), G-Spec(Japan), Neon, Multi(4+1))
*Pilot Hi-Tec-C Pen (Hi-Tec-C Coleto (now 2 or 3 colors per pen),Hi-Tec-C Pen, Hi-Tec-C Knock, Hi-Tec-C Riche, Hi-Tec-C Cavalier,Hi-Tec-C Putimos, Hi-Tec-C Waragi)
*Pentel Ergonomix
*Pentel Tradio
*Zebra Ptimeca
*Zebra 4 in 1 Pen and Mechanical pencils

Erasers

Kokuyo Kadokeshi eraser

One eraser from Japan is the Kokuyo Kadokeshi eraser. It is a 28 corner eraser that won the 2002 Kokuyo design award. It uses a design to stack multiple cubes upon each other, which was sued so that a corner surface always be available.

Novelty eraser

In Japan, a wide variety of novelty erasers are sold. Most of them resemble food items, such as sushi and sashimi. Others include shrimp cracker chip bags, sake bottles and soda cans.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu