How To Buy Pens From Japan (October 2024)

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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

Bungubox and Eboya

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.

Pen club pens

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.

Japan Rabbit (formerly White Rabbit Express) is one of the oldest and most well-known proxies. Two other popular proxies are Buyee and Zenmarket. A relative newcomer is Buyandship.

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 Rakuten Global Express, 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:

Bungubox and Eboya

Second-hand marketplaces

Second-hand Ohashido

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.

Updates

  • 2024-10-05
    • Updated proxy forwarder descriptions and links.
  • 2024-10-02
    • Added links to No3+.
    • Cleaned up dead links.
  • 2024-09-14
    • Added links to Ueno Bungu.
  • 2024-07-10
    • Itoya ship overseas via WorldShopping.
  • 2024-03-23:
    • Added link to STAs online store.
  • 2024-02-24:
    • Bungukan Kobayashi and Pentonote now ship overseas.
    • Removed Ginza Tsutaya as they no longer ship overseas.
    • Updated various store links.
  • 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.