Maruman, Japan’s leading manufacturer of high-quality stationery, is adapting to a shrinking domestic market by concentrating on international business expansion.
Japanese companies are facing some challenges. One is the demographic shift. Japan has one of the oldest populations in the world, and one that is declining. This is putting pressure on Japanese businesses in terms of a shrinking domestic market and in finding staff. In fact, it’s estimated that by 2040, Japan will face a shortage of over 10 million workers. To what extent do you believe Japanese companies need to look overseas to secure the future of their business?
It is true that domestic demand is shrinking in terms of overall volume. At the same time, when it comes to stationery, our target is kids and students, and that number is declining, which directly impacts our demand and will affect our business. Our main strategy is to maintain domestic demand while focusing on international markets. When I became president in 2020, I made it my goal to make the international market larger than the domestic market by 2030, so we are striving towards that target.
To achieve that goal, we established a local entity in Shanghai in 2019, and in June, we established a branch office in the U.S. We also have distributors in about 20 to 30 other countries, so we are exporting our products and selling through these distributors.
If we talk about the decline of the Japanese population, the one thing that isn’t declining is the number of tourists coming into the country. There has been a record number of inbound tourists, estimated to be about 33 million. These tourists are taking advantage of the weak yen and the ability to shop tax-free to buy Japanese-made goods to bring back with them. What opportunities do these numbers of inbound tourists bring to your business?
Talking about inbound tourist consumption, they used to buy luxury products like Chanel and Hermès, as well as electrical gadgets and appliances. Now, I feel that consumption is shifting towards more lifestyle-oriented products, including stationery. In this situation, instead of developing products that are good for omiyage, which are local specialties or souvenir gifts typically bought by traveling Japanese, we are bringing our presence to tourist spots like Ginza and Shinjuku. We try to get big merchandise displays in large stationery shops in those areas. Hopefully, they will purchase those products, or at least they can try them, and, in the best-case scenario, they may post about them on their social media. If they buy to take back to their own countries, we want our products to be available in their markets, so the first step is to get them to know our product. That’s the main target.
Let’s delve deeper into why foreign people appreciate Japanese products. Traditionally, the “Made in Japan” sign of quality and reliability has been applied to electronics. Now, as you said, we’re seeing a transition to lifestyle, experience-based purchasing. Can you tell us what “Made in Japan” represents for stationery products? What is the differentiation between products made here in Japan compared to competitors, whether they are in Asia or in Europe?
In general, quality comes first. In our business, it’s about the paper quality. For us, quality paper goes beyond being easy to write on—it’s designed to facilitate clear thinking and reduce stress. We believe that this approach nurtures creativity and inspires new ideas.
Japanese companies are very particular or even obsessed with something. In extreme cases, we sometimes say we have Galápagos syndrome, which refers to an island divided from other lands and is used to describe the phenomenon of companies becoming overly specialized in developing products. On the plus side, if somebody is looking for something special or unique, a product made in Japan is a good choice.
You mentioned physical retail space. With the COVID pandemic, we saw a real shift, with many brick-and-mortar stores being forced to close. We also saw a lot of commerce moving online, and that is something that has remained true ever since the pandemic. What role do you see e-commerce having in reaching these new target markets, especially overseas?
As you mentioned, in Japan, e-commerce is growing, and that trend is the same in other global markets. However, we are working on both physical and online stores for global markets. There are large e-commerce sites such as Amazon and online stores specializing in stationery such as fountain pens. We believe that by utilizing these online stores, we can reach users we have not been able to touch before.
Are there any other partnerships in any other markets that you’re looking at?
As I mentioned, we have branch offices in China and the U.S., but for other countries, we go through distributors. Our current focus is on Southeast Asia and India because those are markets that value and trust products made in Japan. So while maintaining our current distributors, we are trying to expand there.
Your business is based around stationery, which is an analog product, while today, we’re living in the digital age. Many people say that the love of writing and appreciation for the feel of putting pen to paper is something that is going away or being lost. Handwriting in school, for example, is declining. Can you give us your take on that? What do you think of this transition to digital technologies, and what is the role of the humble pen and paper in today’s digital age?
It is true that everything is digitizing, and in our business, there are certain areas where demand is dropping significantly, especially office documents, which we used to Xerox and copy but now are mostly digital, so the demand is disappearing. If you go after efficiency, we cannot compete with digital, but for study or learning, using digital tools is still new.
Our mission is to be a creative support company, and we’re not just focused on writing or drawing because if you write, it may be to come up with new ideas, and drawing is for creating something.
It’s a famous story that Jeff Bezos writes his ideas on napkins, and even in Japan, senior managers use our sketchbooks to make drawings and to write notes and ideas. It’s not just a one-way presentation; it’s a way to come up with new ideas. Since we humans are analog, I believe that analog paper and pen are a better match for us than digital. Thus, for humans, we believe that using pen and paper is better than using digital tools in thinking of ideas and creating something. So, when we develop new products, we try to focus on those areas where humans strive for creativity or new ideas.
Of course, the strengths of digital and analog are totally different, so I believe that digital and analog can co-exist and complement each other.
Sustainability issues are becoming increasingly important, particularly in the stationery industry. We’re seeing moves towards Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, recycling paper, and upcycling materials in the manufacturing process that otherwise would have been thrown away. What sort of initiatives are you using to improve the environmental performance of your products?
We’re currently in a research and development phase for sustainability, but our main product is paper, and as you mentioned, we have FSC certification. One example is changing plastic bags to paper bags. In fact, plastic bags are cheaper than paper bags, but that’s one initiative that we have for sustainability to reduce our volume of plastic, and we are trying to increase the number of our products that have FSC certification.
Another thing we’re currently researching is biomass or recycled plastics to see if there is a way we can use them, but again, compared to regular products, the cost is higher. For our products, we have to seek a balance with cost.
You mentioned research and development, which seems to be very important in your commitment to paper. You have a materials research department that has developed 13 types of paper for different applications, such as your VifArt watercolor paper. You also have a Paper Meister, who is an expert that checks all of your products. Can you tell us about your R&D process and if there is any new paper technology you’re working on that you can tell our readers about?
We are constantly improving the paper quality because the demands and needs shift. Besides that, we have to make regular efforts to maintain a consistent quality of paper because the machines and materials change over time.
Another example of a product developed from our R&D is a house for kids made from drawing paper. Such a house is usually just made with cardboard, but ours uses drawing paper on the surface so you can draw on the house. This product has redefined value by transforming drawing from a flat (2D) experience into a three-dimensional (3D) one.
Besides your own products, you offer OEM services, whether as a partnership, as you did with ANA Airlines, or as fully customizable products. What strengths do you have that would make a company looking for an OEM partner choose Maruman?
One of our strengths is collaboration. Maruman’s ZUAN sketchbooks are Japan’s most renowned and widely recognized sketchbooks. ZUAN frequently collaborates with character license holders and companies. Partnering with the ZUAN sketchbook allows collaborators to leverage its strengths—its widespread fame and familiarity.
Another strength is that our products are made in Japan, so for companies looking for domestic production partners, we are a good option. There are many stationery factories and brands, but some brands will just do the development and produce through OEM, or even if they produce on their own, they have factories in other countries rather than producing in Japan. In our case, for business in Japan, we can manufacture in Japan, and as a result, we can have a short lead time, and we can guarantee the quality, so having two factories in Japan is our strength.
Of course, there are companies that focus on production only, but in our factories, we produce Maruman products, so we already have materials, machines, and staff; a customer doesn’t need to procure any of that. We are fully integrated, so that’s another strength.
Please imagine that we come back to interview you again on the last day of your presidency. What would you like to have achieved, or what is your personal goal to accomplish by that date?
I would say the goal is to become a global company, as I mentioned. Our main business is currently in Japan, but we want to expand this business to other countries. When you say global company, there are different sizes and scales, but the first target would be to have more international business than domestic business by 2030. We also want to become a global company of a certain size. Those are the things I need to achieve during my time in this role, and I have to hand them over to the next generation once those are completed.
Maruman is a family business. I’m the fourth generation, and each generation has had its own role and mission. I believe my mission is to make Maruman into a global company.
For more information, visit: www.e-maruman.co.jp
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