‘A century ago, one sailor set out to create a fountain pen for the world. The Pilot was born with the vision of adventures on paper.’

The Pilot corporation was established by Ryosuke Namiki with the financial support of Masao Wada in Nihonbashi. They were graduates from the Tokyo Merchant Marine Academy (1918).
The ‘sailor’ Namiki had a dream, he said that he wanted, ‘to create something that he could be proud of infront of the whole world’. With this dream, he changed the stage from the sea to the paper and decided to design and make writing instruments.

The history of Pilot started with producing fountain pens. Since then, it has been developing various writing materials including: a ballpoint pen, a mechanical pencil and a marking pen to support writing.

Pilot supports not only Japanese people’s writing, but also writing of people all over the world. Pilot has opened branches and sales offices in New York, London, Shanghai and Singapore in 1926. Pilot’s global network has become wider and wider and now there are sales branches and production plants in over 100 countries. The trust of Pilot from overseas has been developed through the long history with its thoughtful management philosophy and it’s strong work ethic. A good example of this would be the relationship with Alfred Dunhill, designated supplier to the English royal family, famous as a supplier of world-class premium tobacco and smoking accessories. Dunhill admired Pilot’s work ethic and its products’ superior quality especially the fountain pen called ‘maki-e fountain pen’. As a result, the Dunhill-Namiki brand was established in 1927 with a contract for sales rights in France signed at Dunhill’s Paris store. Three years later, this contract was extended across the whole of Europe. This helped give Pilot and its maki-e foundation pen worldwide recognition.