How much does stationary sales in your country?: Fun Facts about Japan

Here is what I think very very Japanese fun facts about Japan.

Japanese stationary maker; Mitsubishi Pencil Co., Ltd. is making a big success with new high technology mechanical pencil in Japan.

Have you ever seen stationary with “uni” logo in your country? That is the product of Mitsubishi Pencil.

Mitsubishi Pencil released a new mechanical pencil March 2008. And that pencil have sold 3000,000 mechanical pencil within a year. This is a great hit in the market of stationary. Market of stationary is a matured market. Every thing needed is launched and have enough variety in this market. What is more, Japan is now facing the problem of declining birthrate and the stationary market is influenced by this, so that the market are estimated to become smaller and smaller. But Mitsubishi pencil made success in this field. Why?

*foot note
Japanese kids tend to get crazy about stationary until the age of 15. I used to buy new pens and mechanical pencil at least once a month to find the best pencil that fits me. And many school girls like to collect colorful pens to make their note book pretty. Is this a fun facts about Japan for you?

The mechanical pencil that brought Mitsubishi pencil a success is Kurutoga.
What is so great about this mechanical pencil is that it has 3 special gears inside so the lid turns 360 degrees around, every time placed on the paper. By turning the lid around, it will force you to use different side of the lid each time, and prevents lids from leaning on one side. Does this make sense? I bet it doesn’t. It’s probably better for you to go visit the web site.
Here is the link Kurutoga

What is so funny about this news is that Japanese merchandise maker are too particular about small things and put all of their technology in to it. I never cared about lids. Is that so important?


Kurutoga
Mitsubishi Pencil
Resourcer Article