The stationery awards are similar to “Guinness World Records” in that it is an annual publication with information on the best stationery in Japan. This is possible thanks to stationery store staff who serve as judges as they have the deepest insight into what products exist and customers' opinions. 

Publisher Hobby Japan’s writers and artists then assemble the winners in an informative and visually attractive way, and stationery lovers nationwide find it wherever books are sold. Winning a category in the Japanese stationery awards may just net you a title; however, the true price is a massive sales spike from stationery fans all over Japan rushing to try the latest, most innovative, and fun designs of this year. 

ZenPop is always at the forefront of stationery, so we often recognize the winners from our subscription boxes over the past year, and 2025 is no different.

So, without further ado, here are the winners of the most prestigious stationery awards of 2025:

Main Awards Winners:

The grand prize:

Kire-Na Highlighter (Pilot)

This highlight of highlighters is equipped with a “Kitchen Guide” to help you put down straight lines. The guide touches the page to balance your stroke, but without obstructing your path either. Say goodbye to those pesky waves of pink & yellow. 
But the grand prize needs more than one trick up its sleeve…
The tip also has a sponge function, absorbing leftover ink at the end of the stroke to reduce blotting and bleeding on your pages. 
The ink is also quickly drying light ink, making for a smooth process for professionals and hobbyists alike. This is one highlighter you don’t want to be without!

The Design Award: 

THE POST Flexible, Sustainable Leather Pen Case (Luddite)

In addition to being sleek, incredibly spacious, and innovative, this convertible pen case also reduces waste by being made with recycled leather.

At first glance, it looks like your average high-end pen case, but take another gander, and you’ll notice how it clips open in the middle to become a flat sheet of leather, with pockets and a main zipper compartment for those items that cannot be lost. Ideal for those who like to bring lots on the go but need better organization.

The Functionality Award: 

UNI Jetstream Lite Touch Ink (Mitsubishi pencil)

One of ZenPop’s favorite pens, now with the newly developed “Lite Touch Ink”. 
While the name evokes a Nintendo DS commercial, it is the name of an ink formula that reduces writing resistance compared to other inks. 
Jetstream is one of Mitsubishi pencil’s flagship items, designed to be “Just right” for everyone. With this upgrade, they prove that Jetstream is: Once a winner, always a winner.
This was included in the ZenPop January box Twitter Winter

The Innovation Award: 

Kori Jirushi Ice Cube Stamp (King Jim)

Before the Ice Cube stamp, you’d have to have Superman’s X-ray vision to place it correctly. Kingjim must also have superpowers to come up with the simple innovation of just making the stamp transparent. With it, you can easily tell where you place your stamp, mix multiple inks, and even see how well-inked your stamp is to judge whether you need to refill it or not. 
They come in a variety of styles and are super easy to clean as they’re fully made of resin.
An ice cube stamp with a swan design was featured in the ZenPop January 2025 box Twitter Winter

🏆 Category Awards

🖊️ Writing Instruments

When we select what writing utensils go in the ZenPop boxes, we carefully consider the design, functionality, and fit to the theme and other items in the box. That’s why the Mangaka box from 2024 had fineliners, while the Ghibli box from January had Midliners. The Stationery Awards makes similar decisions when selecting their winners, as the item must match the atmosphere of the year that went by while also sporting innovation and beautiful aesthetics. They must be iconic.

Best Ballpoint Pen:

Blen U (Zebra)

The BLEN pen was featured in our March 2024 Nekoneko Box, where we praised it for its ease of writing and compared the feeling to riding a bicycle on new asphalt. The BLEN U improves on the original with even lighter oil-based ink, reducing resistance by 15%. It’s recommended for those taking notes on the fly, where applying pressure can be challenging. 

Best Mechanical Pencil:

Kuru Toga Metal (Mitsubishi Pencil/Uni)

Many Japanese bring KuraToga mechanical pencils as souvenirs when traveling abroad as it’s universally loved for its primary innovation: automatically turning the lead while writing. With the metal version, not only do you get a sophisticated blasted aluminum look, but the added weight also makes it more durable and feels stable. The stability is also thanks to the Kuratoga engine that minimizes the turning of the lead and a nib damper that absorbs the vibration commonly associated with metal writing utensils.

Best Multi-Function Pen:

Jetstream 4&1 (Light Touch Ink) (Mitsubishi Pencil/Uni)

Seeing as the regular Jetstream Lite Touch Ink pen won the Functionality award, it should come as no surprise that its chunkier sibling with 4 types of ink and an integrated mechanical pencil would make an appearance on the list.  In addition to having 4 colors of low friction ink perfect for writing on the go, its slightly shorter than your average multipen, making it easy to fit it in smaller purses or cases.

Best Fountain Pen:

TUZU Adjustable Fountain Pen (Sailor Pen)

Pilot is set on converting fountain pen naysayers with this introductory model. Their research showed that people who struggle with fountain pens tend to find them hard to use due to the angle, so they made a rotating nib that can be adjusted based on your grip technique. It comes complete with an ink converter for easy absorption, multiple nib size options, and a slide-type seal to avoid ink drying out.

Best Color Pen:

Dekot 3 Multi-Layer Marker (Sunstar Stationery)

This magical color pen was included in our December 2024 Box Pinkmas Stationery. Here’s what we said about it: A mysterious tool that allows you to layer your lines. Each one has 2 contrasting colors on a blunt and rounded tip, respectively. Somehow, regardless of what ink is used first, you can layer them on each other!
It’s a product that was released domestically in August 2024!
It’s wonderful for planners, decorators, and artists.

✏️ Erasers & Correction

This category changes from year to year depending on the innovations being brought up. There is only one type of eraser and correction award, so winning this one is prestigious. 

Best Eraser/Correction Tape:

Sakura Wood Radar Eraser (Seed)

Feel the power of nature erase all your worries with this classic seed eraser, encapsulated in a real cherry wood casing. The natural texture of the wood makes each eraser a unique product and adds tactility to an item that can often be overlooked.

📌 Storage & Organization

While you can store your stationery in your ZenPop Boxes, it’s probably a better idea to display your tools in a way that’s slightly more accessible. This category considers aesthetics from a stationery point of view but also in regards to interior design. This year, we see a clear leaning towards individualism and fandom with products designed for the era of pop culture we find ourselves in, much like our Ghibli & Sanrio boxes.

Best Pen Case:

Unidentified Flying Pen Case (Sunstar Stationery)

There’s not much to add here; this is an incredibly creative pen case idea where it looks like a UFO is abducting your stationery with its tractor beam. The case was released shortly after the Netflix phenomenon Dandadan rose to popularity, so the timing couldn't have been better. You can also store knickknacks in the UFO or perhaps add a character to pilot it for the aesthetics.

Best Desk Storage:

Memory Tray (Raymay Fujii)

This tray looks deceptively simple. At a glance, you might mistake it for an external hard drive, but it is indeed a simple tray. As with any tray, it can be opened (shocker, I know) from the front but also from the top. Fold it over, and you reveal a hidden whiteboard for notes and stuff to remember. It also comes with an in-built pen holder and partitioner and has a secure closure system so it can be taken non the go as well.

Best Pouch/Bag:

Myfa Decoration Box Pouch (Lihit Lab)

There are plenty of ITA bags out there, but this one adds another option for customization with a slide pocket on one side and a transparent sheet that wraps around the edges for 360 degrees of personalization.
 

Best File Organizer:

ItoOshi (Plus Corporation)

Designed with true fans in mind, this case can hold around 50-70 tickets, depending on their thickness, or you can allow some space and fit your acrylic stands of your favorite character or artist, too. It has an internal clamp that prevents rattling but no clip on the outside to reduce bulkiness in your bag. This is the perfect case to hold your oshi tight. 

📑 Sticky Notes, Memo, & Notebooks

Paper is the foundation of all stationery activities, and far too many people have only got to experience printer paper as their surface. This category celebrates beauty, texture, feeling, and functionality.

Best Sticky Notes:

isshoni. To-Do List Film Sticky Notes (Daigo)

Very slim sticky notes with small category slips that’ll make your planner look indexed. There are multiple designs with a grid outline, but due to their transparency, they blend in without obstructing other notes. Being made of PET material, they are rather sturdy.

Best Letter Pad:

Hanairo Washi One-Sheet Letter Pad (Midori)

A letter set made with the love and care of a craftsman and the technologies of modern innovation makes for a stunning result. The set comes with envelopes, paper, and a gorgeous contrasting case to store your letter in. The paper is particularly beautiful as it is pre-dyed flower color washi, giving it particularly strong natural hues. The details continue when you notice that the floral patterns are made using traditional letterpress printing techniques.

Best Cards:

“Decorative” Transparent Greeting Cards (Ryu-Ryu)

This card is made from thick, clear material with vibrant printing and silver foil all over, giving it an attractive transparency and glossiness.
When displayed as interior décor on a window, wall, or desk, the foil stamping sparkles and changes appearance depending on the angle and the way the light hits it.

Best Memo Pad:

Kurutto Ring Memo Pad (Maruman)

By mixing a hairclip and a spiral binder, Maruman gave birth to the Kurutoring, or curly ring, if you will. This ingenious binder allows you to open the back of your spiral binder and change the layout similar to a ring binder, but without the added bulk. Enjoy the customization!

Best Notebook:

Tea Time Reading Notebook (Daigo)

Whether tea, coffee, or whiskey is your drink of choice to a good book, Daigo has got you covered with this book record notebook. Track your reading by keeping notes on what you read on each spread, where you can rate the book based on various criteria and with space to both log and comment on the experience. The functionality is rounded out by playful designs inspired by the aforementioned beverages.

Best Planner:

Life-Log Weekly Planner (Marks Inc.)

A planner that takes great mind to cover the essentials of life, balancing dreamy ambition with an appreciation of small things and daily tasks. It features Weekly pages with categories like TO DO / RECORD, TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT, REVIEW, WEEKLY HABITS, WEEKLY REVIEW, and HAPPINESS & HEALTH, and monthly pages for organization. Finally, there are the special pages with 100 wishes and highlights, as well as other unique details you won’t find in other planners.

🖍️ Arts & Crafts

In Japan, even official government documents are exposed to various stamps, stickers, and other items that we in daily life may use as decoration. Naturally, this leads Japan to innovate on these seemingly simple tools, making them even better than before. We often include such tools as die-cut washi tape or the ice cube stamps that won the innovation award.

Best Stamp:

Pokkori Pop-Up Stamp (Sunstar Stationery)

A cute tower of stamps that provide you with 3 styles of stamp in one! The animal on top is depicted in various poses so you can play around with it. But to win the award, cuteness isn’t everything. It also features oil-based ink that lets you color in the design, and each stamp has a guide on the side, making it easy to place your stamp.

Best Masking Tape:

mt Upcycle Tape (Kamoi Paper)

Did you know that in the production of coffee filters, there is a large amount of paper waste? MT knew this and made this upcycled washi tape collection, made with 70% discarded coffee filter waste! The upcycled nature of the pulp gives a unique, muted color to the tape, adding to the organic feeling and your good conscience.

Best Sticker:

Palette-Tone Paint Palette Stickers (Sunstar Stationery)

Enjoy the feeling of painting - without the mess! This sticker “palette” features small round paper stickers in a hue turn order. While being made of paper, the stickers are so flake-thin they are transparent, making them great to place on text or numbers you’d like to highlight. 

Best Clips:

Hikaru Light-Up Clip “Terrasuno” (Sunstar Stationery)

This clip is big and stylish, making it easy to hold pocket books, comics, magazines, or journals, but it has a feature that takes it from good to great. It sports an in-built LED light that is designed to illuminate only the page you’re currently on. No more disturbing your bed partner, no more annoying the passenger next to you on the plane, and no problems when in a place with dim lights. This is a godsend for all the night owls out there.

✂️ Tools & Accessories

You’ll have to be sharp to win this category! But sharpness only gets you so far, which is why safety and convenience are what dominated this category in 2025

Best Scissors:

One-Piece Cap Kids’ Scissors (Kutsuwa)

Many parents give up on child scissors after they lose the casing for the 6th time. This scissors soleves this gripe by having the case be part of the scissor. Simply close the scissors and push the slider to avoid having a sharp object lying around like any other plaything. The edges are rounded, and the handle is big for ease of use and safety, though it is still sharp enough to easily cut cardboard and plastic bottles.

Best Cutter Knife:

2-Way Opener “Akeru Key” (Sunstar Stationery)

A tiny, convenient blade that you can bring everywhere. It looks like a vintage car key and flips out similarly. This is so that you can carry it like a keychain and open boxes right out of the mailbox, or perhaps cut the tag of newly bought clothes instead of ransacking the house for wherever you put the scissors.

🎖 Special Awards

These awards are chosen by the sponsors and supporters of the awards. This does leave open the chance that the winners are biased for some sales purpose, but looking over the list, these are far from clearance ripe leftovers and more overlooked gems that you may want to check out. We even added our own winner to the list!

The ZenPop award:

Mini Scissors (Kutsuwa)

We featured these mini scissors in our April 2024 box, and they have stuck with us as a team favorite. You can “unzip” the scissors for safe handling when not in use as well as keeping them compact enough to fit in a wallet, as a keychain, or in another convenient location for when you need to cut out something quick. They may seem difficult to use due to their tiny size, but even if you have big hands, you’ll find they’re easy to use due to the flat handle, spring suspension, and razor-sharp blades.

Ishimaru Bunkyodo Award:

Haniwa Finger Sack "Hanisack Vol.3" (Lion Office Products)

These finger sacks are great for handling thin, wet, or slippery items and are a niche accessory especially beloved by craft & collage creators. These, in particular, became popular with their cute expressions designed after ancient Japanese Haniwa figures. 

Office Vendor Award:

Brass Calendar Template (Midori)

A beautiful brass template that remains sturdy and elegant no matter how you store it. Thanks to its slim shape. You can even keep it inside your planner and use it to make calendars wherever you need them to be.  It also sports a ruler on the edge to ensure you line up your template just the way you like it.

Kumazawa Shoten Award:

Manual Pencil Sharpener for Thick Pencils (Nakabayashi)

Some pencils are just built differently. Their sheer size prevents them from being sharpened with your average tool. This is where this item comes in, as it takes care of thick wood and colored pencils, with 5 different sizes of cuts. You can tell the maximum and minimum sizes by a sticker on the front.

Coach & Four Award:

“Wakariari” Transparent Writing Board (Kutsuwa)

This board has guides that help you draw straight guide lines in your notebook. It neatly fits in your book, so it's unobstructive yet very useful because it's not a full-size sheet. It has been particularly popular with language learners who practice vocabulary.

Seibunkan Shoten Award:

Campus Blue Sheet Study Aid Notebook 
(Kokuyo)

The red sheet is a student favorite in Japan. It allows you to write with a red pen and cover it up with a colored sheet to help with memorization. Unfortunately for those struggling with colorblindness, these sheets were rather unpractical. That is why the blue sheet, which takes colorblind people into account, is so special. This one works for everyone. If you’re not colorblind, blue is a color associated with calm and concentration, making it ideal for studying. 

TSUTAYA Award:

LACONIC® FLEX Notebook (Laconic)

This is a new type of loose-leaf paper that allows you to grasp various information without having to go back and forth between pages by overlapping content on a double-page spread.
You can combine them however you like. You can check your monthly schedule on the weekly page, take quick notes, or get motivated by looking at photos of your favorite idols. It's an item that makes opening the pages fun, as you can record and manage as much information as you need by overlapping it as much as you need.

Nagasawa Bungu Center Award:

Hocoro Fountain Pen Stand & Case (Sailor Pen)

The Hocoro Fountain Pen Nib Dip Pen Stand & Case is designed to make it easier to use fountain pen bottled ink. It functions as a pen stand and a nib case, catering to users who enjoy experimenting with different nibs and ink colors. As a pen stand, it provides organized storage for multiple pens, with a side hole that lets you see the nib colors and writing widths without removing the pen—perfect for quick selection and even display purposes. As a nib case, it securely holds extra nibs for those who use a single shaft with multiple nibs, ensuring easy storage and portability.

Novelty Research Institute Award:

Marufude Fude-Sen “Bee Net” (Atabou Stationery)

Manuscript paper for when you want to think outside the box! Yes, your eyes do not deceive you; it is indeed round. Made from Kinmari Snow White Paper, expect exceptional quality along with the 3 new designs to this line, one of which resembles a honeycomb due to its hexagonal cells.

Hands Award: 

Picotre Mental Arithmetic Game (Sonic)

Make mathematics fun with this Game Boy-esque calculator. It's filled wth 15,000 problems to solve and comes complete with progress tracking, motivational sound, light, and even min-games! It also has a time-attack mode where you can try to set high scores for your calculation results.

Maruzen & Junkudo Award:

MAX Vaimo 11 Flarme Stapler (Max Co.)

Max Co. Releases the first full redesign of their staple product Vaimo 11 stapler, since 2008. The Vaimo 11 flarme reduces noise, force needed to use and paper impact for better use. It’s lighter, compact, and bends the staples twice on use to be kinder to the paper while still being able to staple up to 40 sheets at once.

Yurindo Award:

Tiptoes Bookmark with pen (Sugaiworld)

This bookmark has a pen included as an easy way to note down ideas the moment inspiration strikes. It's a wonderful tool for artists, academics, and those crazy people who take notes in their novels! They come in 3 animal shapes, making them extra cute as they cling to the top of your book, with the tippy toes that shield the replaceable pen below. This is recommended as a fun novelty gift for all ages.

LOFT award:

Die cut Mousepad (THE COMMON)

This brand is known for creating simple items that somehow still stand out among its likes. This time, the concept of the mousepad was challenged by making, well, mousepads, only these are die cut into cute shapes with slightly surreal designs. Some may be more universally familiar like animal motifs, while ancient artefacts like a depiction of Medjed or Japanese Dougu dolls from the Jomon period.

Yodobashi Camera Award: Artcrayon (Pentel)

These crayons were specifically created with artists in design and in collaboration with watercolor painter Harumichi Shibasaki. They're softer than your average crayon for better control under use. In a way, they give off the feeling of oil painting, especially with their ability to layer the lighter colors on the darker ones. They can also be mixed to create unique color combinations and produce minimal residue compared to other alternatives.

Can't get enough Stationery?

Click here to see what collection of 9 award deserving stationery items ZenPop have in store for our subscribers this month! We often see items that have been in our boxes make the rounds on the internet a year later when the stationery awards release and other outlets become aware of items our subscribers have been enjoying for a year. We have over 8 years of experience curating themed boxes of Japanese only stationery.