Brands & lifestyle
The brands of everyday Asia
Stationery, snacks, neighbourhood chains, tech and conglomerates: the houses you meet daily in China, Japan and Korea, and what they say about those countries. Beauty brands have their own hub.
14 brands
KoreaMonami (모나미)The 153 pen, a Korean national object sold in over four billion units.JapanPilot (パイロット)The Japanese pen par excellence, from the lacquered Namiki fountain pen to the erasable Frixion.ChinaDeli (得力)The office supplier that equipped working China, from the stapler to the whiteboard.ChinaHero (英雄钢笔)The fountain pen of the People's Republic, given to graduates and copied from the Parker 51.JapanKokuyo (コクヨ)The Campus notebook, in nearly every Japanese schoolbag since 1975.ChinaM&G Chenguang (晨光文具)China's leading stationer: 80,000 outlets, nearly all of them next to a school.JapanMaruman (マルマン)The Mnemosyne notebook, black and severe, designed for thinking rather than decorating.JapanMidori / Designphil (ミドリ)The leather Traveler's Notebook and MD paper, two objects that became global notebook cults.KoreaMorning Glory (모닝글로리)The stationery of Korean schoolbags, and the ancestor of the cute-character notebook.JapanPentel (ぺんてる)The inventor of the modern felt-tip, the automatic mechanical pencil and the pocket brush.JapanSakura Color (サクラクレパス)The inventor of the Cray-Pas and the Pigma Micron, the archival-ink pen of illustrators.JapanTombow (トンボ鉛筆)The dragonfly of Japanese writing: the Mono eraser and the dual-tip markers of illustrators.JapanUni / Mitsubishi Pencil (三菱鉛筆)Japan's benchmark pencil, the Jetstream, and a three-diamond logo unrelated to the other Mitsubishi.JapanZebra (ゼブラ)The Sarasa, the Mildliner and a name borrowed from a herd that never splits up.