These figures are derived from KOKUYO’s current corporate overview.3

The name KOKUYO originates from the Japanese trademark adopted by the company in 1917. While the contemporary corporate identity is written in katakana as コクヨ, the historical trademark was associated with the kanji characters 国誉.4 The English spelling KOKUYO now serves as the global brand identity.

Although often associated primarily with notebooks, KOKUYO’s modern business encompasses four major domains:

1. Stationery
2. Furniture
3. Space solutions
4. E-commerce

The company describes its evolution as a progression from stationery to furniture, then to space solutions, and finally to broader human-centred experiences.5

KOKUYO was established in 1905 when 26-year-old Zentaro Kuroda opened the Kuroda Ledger Cover Shop in Osaka. Initially, the business focused solely on producing covers for traditional Japanese account books. Rather than prioritising rapid expansion, Kuroda concentrated on enhancing the quality and utility of these specific products.6

The company expanded its operations gradually:

• 1905: Establishment of Kuroda Ledger Cover Shop
• 1908: Commencement of Japanese-style account book manufacturing
• 1913: Introduction of Western-style account books
• 1914: Expansion into vouchers, invoices, writing paper, and duplicate-copy books
• 1917: Adoption of KOKUYO as the official trademark7

This formative period established a philosophy that continues to define the brand: understanding user needs and improving the overall experience rather than merely manufacturing objects.

KOKUYO’s historical philosophy is anchored in three core principles:

Enriching the world through products

The company views products as solutions to human problems rather than ends in themselves.8

Creating from the customer’s perspective

Product development has historically emphasised imagining oneself as the end-user.

Failure as a stepping stone

Experimentation is integral to the corporate culture. KOKUYO explicitly characterises its contemporary approach as “try first, fail first”, prioritising iterative testing and learning over waiting for perfect solutions.9

In modern terms, KOKUYO articulates these principles through the framework: Co-creation with empathy → Experience design → Culture of experimentation.

For its first several decades, KOKUYO was primarily identified with paper products and stationery. However, Japan’s post-war economic growth generated significant volumes of corporate paperwork, prompting KOKUYO to expand beyond paper into document storage and office organisation.

In 1960, the company entered the steel-product business with filing cabinets, which laid the foundation for its future office-furniture division.10 By the early 1970s, KOKUYO’s portfolio included paper products, stationery, furniture, and office equipment, marking its transformation from a stationery manufacturer into a comprehensive office-solutions provider.11

The company officially changed its name to KOKUYO Co., Ltd. in 1961. Furniture development accelerated throughout the decade:

• 1960: Filing cabinets
• 1965: Steel desks
• 1966: Office swivel chairs
• 1969: New Osaka headquarters and experimental “Live Office” concept12

The Live Office initiative was particularly significant. Instead of a traditional showroom, KOKUYO created a functional office where employees worked daily, allowing customers to observe products in a genuine working environment. This embodied the belief that effective workplace design requires observing actual usage patterns.13

The Campus Notebook, launched in 1975, remains the product most strongly associated with the KOKUYO brand.14 It became deeply embedded in Japanese student culture and education.

KOKUYO positioned Campus not merely as a writing pad but as a tool to make learning easier, more enjoyable, and more effective.15 Over time, the ecosystem expanded to include diverse formats, paper types, layouts, and accessories. Consequently, KOKUYO has cultivated a strong reputation among students, artists, journalers, designers, office workers, and stationery enthusiasts. Internationally, Campus is arguably KOKUYO’s most recognisable consumer brand.

KOKUYO produces an extensive range of stationery and office products. Key examples include:

Campus

Introduced in 1975, this iconic notebook brand is closely linked to study culture and educational environments.16

Harinacs

A stapleless stapler that binds paper without metal staples. Harinacs was developed to combine fastening functionality with reduced reliance on metal consumables.17

Dotliner

An adhesive tape applicator designed to make gluing cleaner and more precise. It emerged as one of KOKUYO’s notable stationery innovations in the 2000s.18

Kadokeshi

Launched in 2003, this eraser features multiple corners to facilitate precise erasing.19

GLOO

An adhesive-products brand introduced in 2018, characterised by clean, minimalist design.20

ing

The 360° Gliding Chair “ing”, released in 2017, reflects KOKUYO’s shift towards furniture designed around human movement and behaviour rather than static ergonomics.21

KOKUYO’s design philosophy extends beyond aesthetics to address fundamental questions of utility, such as how an object is actually used. For instance, filing cabinets have historically been approached as components of a document-management experience rather than mere containers.22

Similarly, furniture is not treated as isolated objects but as elements influencing how people move, collaborate, concentrate, learn, communicate, and behave within a space. This holistic perspective drove the company’s expansion from products to spaces.

Modern KOKUYO operates well beyond the stationery sector. Its space-related activities encompass:

• Office planning
• Workplace design
• Furniture supply
• Interior environments
• Consultation
• Educational and public/commercial spaces
• Experimental workplaces

The company frames this evolution as Stationery → Furniture → Space Solutions, based on the premise that individual items like desks or notebooks are only components of a larger human experience.23

A contemporary manifestation of this philosophy is THE CAMPUS in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Opened in 2021, it transformed part of KOKUYO’s Shinagawa office into an open environment integrating work, learning, community, and lifestyle experiences.24

Features include workplace environments, community areas, park-like settings, retail shops, cafés, and interaction spaces. Rather than presenting KOKUYO solely as a furniture manufacturer, THE CAMPUS demonstrates the broader concept of designing “Work & Life” experiences.25

Although rooted in Osaka, KOKUYO has progressively built an international presence. Key milestones include:

• 1996: Establishment of KOKUYO-IK (Thailand), KOKUYO International Hong Kong, and KOKUYO (Malaysia)
• 2003: Commencement of full-scale operations in China
• 2005: Establishment of KOKUYO Vietnam
• 2011: Acquisition of shares in India’s Camlin Limited
• 2012: Expansion of Shanghai manufacturing operations
• 2019: Establishment of PT. KOKUYO Furniture Indonesia26

The company’s Asian footprint is particularly significant, as products have become increasingly visible across the region outside Japan.

Malaysia holds particular importance in KOKUYO’s regional history. According to KOKUYO Malaysia’s records:

• 1996: KOKUYO (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. established
• 1997: Opening of the first manufacturing plant outside Japan
• 2000: Foundation of KOKUYO International (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
• 2018: Opening of an ASEAN flagship showroom27

More recently, KOKUYO expanded its retail footprint with the opening of the first Campus STYLE Malaysia stationery store in 2024.28 This makes Malaysia a central pillar of KOKUYO’s Southeast Asian development.

Environmental considerations increasingly influence product development. The Harinacs stapleless stapler exemplifies this, offering an alternative fastening method that eliminates metal waste. KOKUYO’s historical accounts highlight an interest in creating value beyond simply making a product “green”.29

The company has also integrated environmental metrics into product cataloguing, introducing an “Eco-batsu Mark” initiative to identify products requiring improved environmental performance and encourage refinement.30

Established in 2002, the KOKUYO DESIGN AWARD reflects the company’s commitment to sourcing ideas from external designers and creators alongside internal teams.31

The competition reinforces KOKUYO’s image as an organisation focused on industrial design, everyday objects, usability, human behaviour, and design experimentation. This contributes to its perception as a design-driven Japanese company rather than a traditional stationery manufacturer.

KOKUYO’s development can be categorised into distinct phases:

Stage 1: Paper and ledgers (1905–1950s)

Evolution from ledger covers to paper products, forms, notebooks, and related stationery.

Stage 2: Office organisation (1960s)

Entry into steel products, filing systems, and office furniture.

Stage 3: Workplace design (1969–1990s)

Conceptualisation of offices as complete environments, including the Live Office concept and dedicated office research.

Stage 4: Convenience and e-commerce (2000s)

Expansion into mail-order office supplies and digital commerce through businesses such as Kaunet.

Stage 5: Work & Life experiences (2010s–present)

Integration of stationery, furniture, architecture, workplace design, lifestyle, and community spaces.

This trajectory represents a shift from Paper → Products → Furniture → Offices → Spaces → Experiences.

KOKUYO’s contemporary operations span several key areas:

Stationery

Includes notebooks, paper products, files, folders, writing instruments, adhesives, organisation products, and school/learning stationery. This remains the most publicly recognisable segment.

Furniture

Encompasses office desks, chairs, storage, educational furniture, collaborative furniture, and workplace products.

Space Solutions

Focuses on the design and planning of holistic environments rather than the supply of individual furniture pieces.

E-commerce

Includes office-supply commerce and procurement businesses such as Kaunet.

As a brand, KOKUYO is characterised by attributes that are distinctly Japanese, practical, thoughtful, minimalist, innovative, and user-centred. Innovation is rarely pursued for technological spectacle alone; instead, the characteristic approach is to take an ordinary everyday problem and make the experience noticeably better.

While products may appear simple—a notebook, file, stapler, or chair—KOKUYO consistently reconsiders how people actually interact with those objects.

KOKUYO occupies a unique intersection of multiple industries: Stationery × Industrial Design × Architecture × Furniture × Education × Workplace Design. Unlike specialists in single categories, KOKUYO has spent over a century expanding across these domains.

Its history mirrors broader shifts in Japanese working and learning culture: from ledgers to paperwork, filing, computer-era offices, flexible workplaces, and integrated work/life environments. KOKUYO has repeatedly adapted its products and business model to align with these cultural transitions.

Unlike typical stationery companies that define themselves by manufacturing notebooks, pens, and folders, KOKUYO positions itself as designing the experiences surrounding learning, working, and living. This distinction is central to understanding the corporation.

KOKUYO explicitly states that it has grown from stationery to furniture and from furniture to space solutions. Consequently, while consumers may encounter the brand through a Campus notebook, the underlying entity functions closer to a design and workplace-experience company with a major stationery business.

As of 2026, KOKUYO is a Japanese corporation with over 120 years of history, headquartered in Osaka. Its modern business integrates traditional stationery expertise with furniture, workplace design, space solutions, and commerce.

The company summarises its present direction as creating experiences for work, learning, and life, rather than limiting itself to physical products. Its corporate identity can be understood as a design-oriented enterprise that began with ledger covers in 1905 and grew into a global provider of stationery, furniture, workplace environments, and human-centred experiences.

1. Kokuyo
2. Company Overview | About KOKUYO | KOKUYO
3. Expanding in Stationery | About KOKUYO | KOKUYO
4. Kokuyo
5. 価値観と歴史｜コクヨを知る｜コクヨ
6. About KOKUYO | KOKUYO
7. Values and History | About KOKUYO | KOKUYO
8. Kokuyo
9. Milestone & History – KOKUYO Malaysia
10. kokuyo.com
11. Founding Spirit | Diverary [KOKUYO Furniture]
12. kokuyo.com
13. Corporate Report | IR Library | Investor Relations | KOKUYO
14. Investor Relations | KOKUYO
15. IR Library | Investor Relations | KOKUYO
16. PDFs of the Integrated Report and Sustainability Website Content｜ESG data｜Sustainability｜KOKUYO
17. Investor Relations Sitemap | Investor Relations | KOKUYO
18. Sustainability | KOKUYO
19. 株主・投資家情報｜コクヨ
20. KOKUYODOORS – ABOUT US
21. PRODUCTS | KOKUYODOORS | KOKUYO
22. KOKUYODOORS Harinacs compact α | KOKUYODOORS | KOKUYO
23. ABOUT US｜KOKUYODOORS｜コクヨ
24. Stapleless stapler capable of binding 10 sheets | KOKUYODOORS | KOKUYO
25. PRODUCTS記事一覧｜KOKUYODOORS｜コクヨ
26. 業績・財務｜株主・投資家情報｜コクヨ
27. 百年历史 | 国誉办公家具
28. KOKUYO | Official Global Online Store| About us
29. キャンパスノートの歴史｜キャンパスノート｜コクヨステーショナリー
30. Annual Reports – Investor Information | Kokuyo Camlin
31. Company Introduction – Kokuyo