The story
In 1911, Sailor was founded by Kyugoro Sakata and his brother in Hiroshima as the "Sakata Manufactory", producing gold pen nibs. Kyugoro Sakata had been introduced to the fountain pen by a visiting British sailor, and this became the inspiration for the company name adopted a few years later.
The factory moved in 1917 to Hamadacho and changed its name to the “Sailor Pen Sakata-Manufactory Co., Ltd.”. The production of their fountain pens began here.
Their first ballpoint pens were produced in 1948. The first ink cartridges were invented by the firm in 1954, and made available to the public in 1958.
In the 1960s, Sailor launched a pen with 21K gold nibs, a world first. In 1963, the company introduced a handy, small pen with a cap clip that allowed the pen to be carried in a breast pocket or shirt pocket. The company also launched the first brush pen, a type of writing instrument derived from Japanese calligraphy brushes. In the 1970s, the pen market was in crisis. The company responded by launching a series of colourful pens for children called Candy in 1976, which turned out to be a success, as 15 million of this series were sold worldwide in 4 years. The Chalana series of pens also enjoyed large sales.
In 1981, Sailor launched the 1911 series of pens (known as Profit in Japan) the name of which referred to the year in which the company's history began.
In 1952 the head office moved from Kure, Hiroshima to Tokyo, but in April 2021 it was returned to Kure.
From Wikipedia’s article on Sailor (pen company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4