Buying fountain pens from Japan can be challenging. Most retailers only ship to domestic addresses and it can be hard to tell legitimate retailers apart from resellers.

Fortunately, there are ways to buy pens from Japan without paying hefty reseller markups. Some stores and pen clubs ship overseas, and there are affordable third-party shipping services available for stores that don’t.

Below is a list of retailers, pen clubs, and shipping services that I am aware of. I am not affiliated with any of them and have not used any of the shipping services myself. There are no referral links here.

See also my friend Alesa’s excellent video about buying pens from Japan. We researched this topic together.

Stores that ship overseas

• Amazon Japan
• Bungubox
• Eboya
• Giftionery Delta (ink) new!
  • Contact them via a web form.
• Ginza Tsutaya (ink) new!
  • Send them a DM in English on Instagram. For an idea of what they sell, see @penfriend_uk’s story highlights.
• Hakase
• Kakimori
• Nagasawa
  • Nagasawa’s Pen Style Den, Umeda, and Renga stores have their own store-exclusive models. To order those, send an email to penstyle-den, umeda or kobe-renga (all with suffix @kobe-nagasawa.co.jp). English is OK.
• Pelle Penna
  • Contact them via a web form.
• TAG Stationery
• Tokyo Pen Shop Quill (still ships overseas.)

Pen clubs

Wagner is perhaps Japan’s most famous pen club. Wagner’s club-exclusive Platinum, Sailor, and Pilot pens are coveted by pen collectors worldwide. Club president Mori-san recently started selling Wagner pens to overseas customers. Contact him via email (English OK) if you want to be notified of upcoming releases.

Kansai-based y.y. Pen Club also sells club-exclusive pens, mostly Sailors, and ships overseas. Contact y.y. Pen Club directly via email to buy a pen. English is OK.

Proxies and forwarders

Many stationery retailers have online stores but only ship to domestic addresses. To buy from those, you need a proxy or forwarding service.

Proxy services are the easiest ones to use. You specify what you want to buy, and the service takes care of the rest. There is no need to create an account with any Japanese online store.

White Rabbit Express is one of the oldest and most well-known proxies. After pasting a product link into a form, you will receive a quote from White Rabbit. It is a manual process and works with any online store but can be slow.

Two other popular proxies are Buyee and Zenmarket. These support only certain stores, including Rakuten and Yahoo Shopping, but the process is automated and faster. Possibly cheaper as well.

Another type of service is a package forwarder. These give you a PO Box-like address in Japan to which you can ship goods you buy from online stores yourself. Later, you can request a bulk shipment to your home address. Package forwarders include Blackship, Buyandship, and Tenso.

Alesa’s video explains how to use these proxy and forwarding services in greater detail:

Stores

Once you have an account with a proxy or package forwarder, you can buy from online stores in Japan:

• Ancora
  • Sailor “birthstone” minis
• Bungukan Kobayashi
  • 60th anniversary Kawasemi Briar Wood
  • Other store-exclusive items (ink and Kobayashi’s 3776 Kawasemi occasionally available.)
• Daimaru Fujii Central
  • Pilot 91 “Hamanasu” (via Zenmarket)
  • Sailor “Hitsujigaoka” (via Zenmarket)
• Hachimonjiya
  • Kubozakura, Ginzan, and other store-exclusive pens
• Hougado
  • Store-exclusive pens
  • 25th-anniversary Pilot 743 (on Zenmarket)
• Ishimaru Bunkodo
  • Nagasaki Bikei inks and other store-exclusives
• Ka-ku
  • Store-exclusive pens
• Kawasaki Bunguten
  • Store-exclusive pens and ink
  • Sailor “Jazz Age” (via Buyee)
• Kingdom Note Rakuten store
  • Sailor LEs
  • Sailor Mini “Merops apiaster” (via Buyee)
• Lichtope
  • Store-exclusive ink
  • Store-exclusive pens
• Maruzen
  • Athena Eternal Blue (via Buyee)
  • 150th-anniversary “Athena the Pen” (via Buyee)
  • Sailor “Time Traveler” (via Buyee)
• Ohashido
• Pen-Land
  • Store-exclusive ink
• Pen-house (on Rakuten)
  • Store-exclusive ink
  • Store-exclusive pens
  • Sailor Realo “Philosophia” (via Buyee)
• Pen-point
  • Store-exclusive ink
  • Store-exclusive pens
  • Sailor “Coral Reef” (via Zenmarket)
• Pen-stars (Platinum’s semi-official online store.)
• Pentonote
  • Store-exclusive ink
  • Store-exclusive pens
• Shosaikan
  • Store-exclusive pens and ink
• Sunrise Trading **NEW!**
  • Shishikura Natsu-hanabi
  • Shishikura Yumoji
• Office Vender (on Rakuten)
  • Store-exclusive ink
  • NE6 Tohoku inks (via Buyee)
• Tayama Bungu (on Rakuten)
  • Store-exclusive pens and ink
  • 125th-anniversary Sailor (via Zenmarket)
• Usagiya
  • Store-exclusive pens and ink
• Yotsuba
  • Store-exclusive pens and ink
• You Style
  • Sailor “Hamachidori” (via Zenmarket)
  • Sailor “Hamanashi” (via Zenmarket)

Second-hand marketplaces

• Mercari
  • Fountain pens (via Buyee)
• Paypay Fleamarket
  • Fountain pens
• Rakuma
  • Fountain pens (via Buyee)
• Yahoo Auctions
  • Fountain pens (via Zenmarket)

Please let me know if I forgot any good stores or shipping services! Also, if you found this list useful, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi.

Update: See also Reddit user 240snusit’s excellent guide, titled A guide on buying Japanese pens from Japanese auctions .

Updates

• 2022-07-18:
  • Giftionery Delta and Ginza Tsutaya ship overseas. H/T @penfriends_uk.
  • Nagasawa’s Renga and Umeda stores have their own exclusives and corresponding email addresses. H/T @pollypan.
• 2022-09-03:
  • Link to 240snusit’s guide (H/T berryrohse on Pen Addict Slack).
• 2022-09-25:
  • Added link to Sunride Trading’s new online store.

#buy from japan #proxy service #package forwarder #fountain pens