Pentel Co., Ltd. becomes ASTRUM CORPORATION on April 1, giving the company a new identity as the base for PLUS’s planned stationery-business integration through 2028. The March 17 announcement keeps the Pentel product brand in place worldwide.
There is more here than a new name on the letterhead. An ownership change, a shared management structure and now a staged integration have brought one of the pencil industry’s familiar names into a much larger company story.
Pentel has changed its name before
The business began in 1946 as Dai Nippon Bungu. “Pentel” first appeared as the name of an oil pastel in 1951; the company adopted it as its own name in 1971. Its official history links that decision to the success of the Sign Pen and the international expansion of its mechanical pencils and replacement leads.
There is a nice pencil-world detail in that timeline: Kerry also arrived in 1971. The corporate Pentel name and the capped pencil have been around for the same stretch of history. This time, the company is adopting a broader identity while keeping the product name that customers already know.
The ownership change came in 2022
PLUS had already built a stake through Japan Stationery Consortium in 2019. In September 2022, it announced a deal to buy Kokuyo’s entire Pentel holding—45.6% of the shares. That meant all of Kokuyo’s stake, rather than all of Pentel.
The completed acquisition took the PLUS group’s voting interest from 30.7% to 76.3%, according to its 2022 financial statements. PLUS’s corporate history places Pentel’s arrival as a subsidiary in November 2022. Those percentages describe that transaction, not a freshly disclosed 2026 holding.
A further step followed in January 2024. PLUS established an internal Global Stationery Company to coordinate strategy, management and brands across its stationery businesses, while the individual businesses continued running their own operations. April’s rename follows that earlier work.
Who is in the PLUS plan?
PLUS is a Tokyo-based group founded in 1948, with businesses spanning stationery, office furniture and distribution. The stationery division is one part of that wider group.
Nippon Notebook makes notebooks and paper stationery under names including APICA, KYOKUTO and OKINA.
Sailor makes writing instruments, including fountain pens and mechanical pencils. Being in the same group does not mean every company is being merged into Astrum.
The March 17 notice includes PLUS Stationery, Pentel, Nippon Notebook and their domestic and overseas affiliates in the staged integration. Sailor has a different position:
| Name | Role in the announcement |
|---|---|
| Astrum / Pentel | The renamed Pentel company provides the base for integration. Pentel continues as its product brand. |
| PLUS Stationery | The parent company’s stationery division is included in the staged integration. |
| Nippon Notebook | The notebook business is included in the staged integration. |
| Sailor | A fellow group company, expected to retain its separate legal entity and stock-market listing. |
What to watch from the pencil aisle
The business question is how those companies will work together. PLUS’s acquisition documents identified cooperation in research and development, production, purchasing and domestic and overseas sales. Those are areas worth following for a manufacturer of pencils and leads.
But the March announcement leaves the individual integration steps for later disclosure. It does not announce a new pencil mechanism, a factory move or a change to replacement parts. Whether the reorganization produces a better product or a wider route to market will need evidence from those next announcements.
For now, there are two useful places to follow the story: Pentel’s product site for what reaches the pencil aisle, and Astrum’s corporate site for the business behind it.
