Zentarō Kuroda, who at the age of 26, established KOKUYO in Osaka, in 1905.

The company was not always a stationery store- Kuroda started his business selling covers for Japanese-style account ledgers. Although the cover of the account legers was an important part of the product, the cost of the cover was only 5 percent of the whole cost of an account ledger, hence, it could not be seen as a profitable business.

Yet Kuroda believed ‘as long as we do something that will be of use to people, we will definitely be accepted’.

He kept working with this conviction and succeeded in developing a strong client base. He then expanded the company to produce not only the cover but also the entire account leger.

Since 1954 , Kokuyo has expanded its business and become a leading company in the paper manufacturing industry.

Kokuyo kept expanding its business as a stationery manufacture, an office furniture manufacturer and office equipment maker with the motto ‘KOKUYO for all office supplies’.

The name ‘KOKUYO’ was created by Kuroda’s determination. In Japanese KOKU, means ‘country’ or ‘hometown,’ which represented Kuroda’s hometown. YO, means ‘honour’ and when he left his hometown aged 19, he decided to ‘become an honour of his hometown’.

One of the most popular and long-time selling products is ‘Campus Note' notebook- its series are widely used and sold in Japan and other Asian countries. ‘Campus Note’ brand was debuted in 1965 as the industry's first 'designer notebooks'; they printed illustrations or photographs but the first market response was rather unfavourable. However, as a second trial they changed the design to scenes from famous European and American universities and it became a big success, because European and American campus life was more attractive among young students in Japan.

Since then, they have renewed the product five times improving the quality, function and design each time.