Promoting culture and education through business activities
Writing and education are closely related.
Education affects future employment prospects, and in a world where poverty is recognized as a problem in many areas, we believe that education is an effective way to break the chains of poverty. In line with those ideas, and to contribute to the realization of sustainable societal advancement and a prosperous future society, we are active in countries and regions around the world with support for a wide range of learning, such as improving the educational environment for children and promoting understanding of diversity as well as supporting the physical and mental growth that can be learned through sports.
Under PILOT Group’s purpose statement, “Our Creations Inspire Creativity”, we provide opportunities to experience the joy of learning and different cultures, and engage in various activities to support the creativity of children, who will shape the future.
The “Writing is Important” Project
We support the “Writing is Important” Project, an in-class program offered by the Japan Culture Education Propulsion Mechanism to explain the importance and significance of writing to elementary school students.
Japan’s emphasis on ICT in education—for example, providing a tablet to every elementary school student—means that children are now spending more time typing and less time writing by hand. Advances in digital technology are wonderful, bringing convenience and efficiency to everyone. However, we believe that there is a warmth in words that can only be expressed through handwriting and the heartfelt feeling people put into it, and that, because we have supported the act of writing around the world for over a century by producing writing instruments, one of our missions is to seize the present moment to convey the value of writing to children, who will shape the future.
In the first year, more than 4,000 children honed their skills in the program and enjoyed learning about the meaning and importance of writing.
“Writing is Important” Project,
Japan Culture Education Propulsion Mechanism (Japanese language only)
Sponsorship of the Japan Science & Engineering Challenge
The Japan Science & Engineering Challenge (JSEC) for high school and technical college students (organized by Asahi Shimbun and TV Asahi) is intended to create and nurture future scientists. This is a nationwide independent science and engineering research contest for high school and technical college students. Students who achieve excellent results in this contest go on to participate in the world competition.
In addition to presenting the PILOT Corporation Award for excellent research, we support learning opportunities for future scientists through this sponsorship.
JSEC (Japan Science & Engineering Challenge,
Japanese language only)
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters reading promotion campaign
We have been supporting the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters’, a Japanese Professional Baseball team, campaign, started in 2014, to promote reading throughout Hokkaido with the phrase “Turn your glove into a book.” We hope to foster the habit of reading from an early age and improve academic skills amid the declining number of children using libraries in Hokkaido and the number of books being lent out.
This campaign focuses on elementary school students, during their summer vacation, then who have finished reading the target number of books. They were presented with mechanical pencils made by PILOT featuring the Fighters logo through the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
PILOT 4 School by Pilot Pen (Deutschland) GmbH
Pilot Pen (Deutschland) GmbH (PPD), the German sales subsidiary of PILOT, has been implementing the PILOT 4 School program since 2016. PILOT 4 School is an education support program for learning about diversity, environmental protection and other important themes taught in modern schools.
In this program, PPD provides teaching materials for free and holds an annual school competition in which classes from elementary and junior high schools compete with creative ideas on a preselected theme.
One year, the inter-class competition was held on the theme of environmental protection. Children from Germany and Austria participated with original methods of recycling plastic waste, creative puzzles themed on environmental protection and other creative ideas.
Prize money was awarded to the first- and second-place classes. In addition, the PILOT Set, a set of writing instruments from PILOT, was given to each of the students who participated in the competition.
PPD will continue this initiative to support children who will be the next generation of leaders and their teachers.
In 2024, PPD attracted more than 500 schools to participate in the annual competition, indicating that the achievements from this initiative had expanded.
In 2025, PPD improved its approach to educators and is developing this initiative further in response to the increasing digitalization of teaching materials.
The company will also use a new platform for enhancing communication with teachers.
Shonan Bellmare Official Club Partner
We are an official club partner of Shonan Bellmare, the local professional soccer club in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, where one of our plants is located. We help the club give children a chance to acquire life skills such as leadership and teamwork through the club’s youth development and education projects, and also make efforts to contribute to and revitalize local communities.
We also support the club’s visits to PE classes at local elementary schools and its Football Academy (a total of seven teams, from special classes for strengthening elementary school students through U-18), and are a special sponsor of the COPA BELLMARE U-11 PILOT INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT, an international U-11 soccer tournament organized by Shonan Bellmare for elementary school students. We provide various educational and cultural experience opportunities, for example inviting children from participating teams from outside Japan to our Hiratsuka Plant to try their hand at assembling writing instruments.
Sponsoring for “Kokoro no Gekijo” Project
PILOT Corporation sponsors “Kokoro no Gekijo,” a project organized by the BUTAIGEIJUTSU CENTER and SHIKI THEATRE COMPANY (Kanto Block).
“Kokoro no Gekijo” project aims to convey important life values such as “the importance of life,” “compassion for others,” and “the joy of trusting each other” to children through theatrical performances. The project invites children from all over Japan to the theater for free.
By supporting this initiative, PILOT Corporation aims to nurture “deep compassion” and “creativity” in children who will shape the future.
Educational support activities by Pilot Pen Singapore
Pilot Pen Singapore has actively provided various types of educational support to students for many years.
Pilot Pen Singapore has sponsored student badminton tournaments since the 1990s.
In Singapore, sports are encouraged as part of education programs, and badminton is one of the most popular sports. The PILOT Pen Cup is a national competition for students where we promote opportunities for the healthy growth of students. We will also continue to cultivate a community of young badminton players by sponsoring the Pilot Pen Championships at the Temasek Club, a badminton competition for students ages 8 to 14 in Singapore.
Recently, we were a corporate partner of “Race to Sustainability!,” an initiative to raise awareness of Singapore Green Plan 2030 among the younger generation. Through this program, students furthered their knowledge of Singapore’s renewable resources, the effects of climate change, and other aspects of sustainability and engaged in discussions on how to achieve a sustainable society.
ALVARK Tokyo's Handwritten Hooray! Project
We support the Handwritten Hooray! Project for elementary school children hosted by ALVARK Tokyo, a professional basketball club.
It is an experience-based project in which elementary school children interact with athletes from the team with messages written by hand on an original card after they attend a basketball class at school taught by an academy coach from ALVARK Tokyo.
Athletes respond to encouraging handwritten messages from children with their own handwritten messages.
By supporting this project, we will enable children, who are future leaders, to experience the warmth of letters and the thoughts reflected in them, which can be felt only through handwritten communication, and experience this excitement, so they understand the value and fun of handwriting.
ALVARK Tokyo's Handwritten Hooray! (Japanese language only)
Co-sponsorship of the Postcard Essay Contest (Hagakinomeibun concours)
The Postcard Essay Contest (Hagakinomeibun concours) has been held since 2015 to popularize the habit of writing messages on postcards and enhancing the beauty of Japanese as a language, thereby preserving Japanese culture.
Digital means of communication such as email and social media are becoming popular, but the use of postcards to communicate is a traditional element of Japanese culture.
Postcards and handwriting are deeply connected to each other. The thoughts of the people sending the postcards are expressed through warm, handwritten characters.
We co-sponsor the competition in support of its purpose, preserving this attractive element of Japanese culture.
By co-sponsoring this competition, we will create a cultural experience and opportunities to express things in words and connect people, and at the same time, we will continue our activities enabling the next generation to learn about the wonderfulness of handwriting, based on our Purpose, “Our Creations Inspire Creativity.”
Postcard Essay Contest (Hagakinomeibun concours) (Japanese language only)
Various initiatives through business activities
As a manufacturer, we believe that environmental protection and the realization of a recycling-oriented society are our major responsibilities. Our group is actively developing products and providing services that contribute to the reduction of environmental burdens. In addition, we are reducing waste by reducing, reusing, and recycling, including the development of products made from materials recycled from marine plastic waste, and promoting the reuse of resources and the effective use of limited resources.
BEGREEN, a global brand for a series of eco-friendly products
BEGREEN is PILOT’s global unified brand for eco-friendly products. This series of environmentally friendly ecological products use recycled materials. In addition to using recycled materials in our products, we are promoting product development that adopts a refillable and replenishing system to cut waste and reduce the amount of single-use products.
We have a wide product lineup from ballpoint pens to markers; some of the main ones are B2P (bottle to pen) ballpoint pens made from recycled plastic bottles, Super Grip G Ocean Plastic ballpoint pens made from recycled marine plastic waste, and Board Master whiteboard markers with replaceable ink and nibs.
Promotion of plastic-free packaging
Corporate initiatives to address environmental issues are attracting more and more attention, so we are promoting the use of recycled materials in our products and switching to paper-based packaging that does not use plastics.
In the European market, where people are highly conscious of environmental issues, we began switching a few years ago from conventional plastic packaging to eco-friendly recycled paper packaging. More recently, we switched to paper packaging in Japan.
Paper packaging products sold in the European market
Paper packaging products sold in Japan
B2P (bottle to pen) writing instruments made from recycled plastic bottles
Since 2009, we have been using plastic bottles and water cooler bottles collected from homes, vending machines, and offices as raw materials for making writing materials at our plants in Japan, France, and the United States and we are selling these in overseas markets. These are replacement core products made for repeated use.
We hope that recycling plastic bottles, a part of our daily lives, into familiar writing instruments will be an environmental initiative that anyone can take part in.
*B2P are sold only in overseas markets.
Pilot Pen (Deutschland) GmbH's pen recycling activities
Pilot Pen (Deutschland) GmbH works together with TerraCycle to recycle used pens of any brand, thus contributing to a circular economy.
The company has prepared free used pen collection boxes with the goal of making sure that the recycling of pens and other daily habits are effective actions for the achievement of sustainability.
From October to mid-December 2024, the company notified educational institutions, where handwriting is still important, of the program, encouraging them to participate in it. It is conducting an intensive campaign in support of the program.
In this initiative that was launched in 2024, 1,000 collection points have already been set up across Germany and Austria, making it possible for anyone to easily participate in it.
Super Grip G Ocean Plastic
In 2020, we launched an initiative to reduce marine plastic waste and microplastics by manufacturing and selling ballpoint pens with oil-based ink that are made of resin recycled from marine plastic waste collected by external partner company* in Japan. Recycled plastic from the ocean is used for part of the main body and recycled materials are also used for other parts, achieving a recycled material rate of 70% or more, excluding replaceable parts. We will increase the use of recycled materials derived from marine plastic waste, promote their distribution and collection, and cooperate in reducing marine plastic waste.
* The Japanese subsidiary of an American social enterprise founded by a university student in 2001. Based on the philosophy of "throwing away the concept of throwing away," we have developed businesses in over 20 countries around the world. We collect materials that were conventionally considered difficult to recycle and recycle them into a variety of products.
Toner Cartridge Recycling
Since 1995, we have been collecting used toner cartridges, replacing drums, and refilling toner through our recycling service in Japan.
By having more people use toner cartridges that have been recycled to strict quality and environmental standards, we promote the reduction of CO2 emissions and plastic waste. Instead of continuing to consume the Earth’s limited resources, we intend to circulate them in a sustainable way. Although more than half of the European and US toner markets are using recycled products, the diffusion rate of recycled toner in Japan is still around 23%. We will continue to promote recycled toner use as part of our initiatives to reduce the burden on the environment.
Ballpoint Pens Made from Plant-derived Biomass Plastic
Since 2022, we have been manufacturing and selling writing instruments that incorporate biomass plastic, which is made from plant-derived organic resources, excluding fossil resources such as petroleum.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is emitted when plastics are incinerated, but unlike petroleum-derived plastics, the corn and wheat used in biomass plastic absorb CO2 during their growth. Since CO2 has already been absorbed, the use of biomass plastic slows the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere (carbon neutral). Therefore, we expect biomass plastic to contribute to the prevention of global warming and to reduce dependence on fossil-based resources.
Henceforth, to curb global warming, we will promote initiatives starting with what we can do through our business operations.
Used pen recycling program
Focusing attention to the fact that many used writing instruments are discarded, which is a problem, we began to implement a program for collecting and recycling used writing instruments in April 2020 in collaboration with TerraCycle Japan.*1 Collected writing instruments are disassembled at a subcontractor's plant and each material is recycled.
In 2023, we successfully commercialized a pen which uses collected recycled materials for some of its parts.
Collection boxes have been set up at more than 600 locations across Japan, including schools and commercial facilities. Recycled writing instruments are used as teaching materials for the PILOT Environmental Class.*2 They were also sold exclusively at some outlets in Japan.
In PILOT Environmental Class, we recommend using refillable products (products where the ink can be refilled), contributing not only to waste reduction but also to raising awareness of the value of cherishing things and using them for a long time.
We teach the class at schools, local government facilities and commercial facilities in Japan. In 2024, the class attracted more than 7,000 participants.
We will continue to consider programs that can be made available to a wide range of users. We will also continue initiatives to reduce environmental impact and establish a recycling-based society through the reduction of waste writing instruments.
- *1. TerraCycle Japan operates a recycling platform for goods that were previously deemed difficult to recycle in line with its corporate mission, Eliminating the Idea of Waste®.
- *2. Participants learn about the environment through the experience of assembling ballpoint pens and other writing instruments that are recycled in the used pen collection program.
Used pen recycling program(Japanese language only)
Social contributions through business activities
PILOT and the PILOT Group make social contributions through business activities. We will continue to work on more of these activities through manufacturing and sales.
Support for Save the Children Japan
We also provide products for the Food Box for Children program in Japan operated by Save the Children Japan. The Food Box for Children provides food and other items to families facing financial difficulties with the goal of improving the circumstances of children during the long summer and winter school holidays. We receive many requests for stationery, so we provide writing instruments and other stationery twice each year.
We will continue to support Save the Children Japan.
*Save the Children is an international NGO, founded in England in 1919, active in about 120 countries. Save the Children helps to realize a child’s right to live, grow, be protected, and to participate.
Pink Ribbon support activities
Pilot Corporation of America donates a portion of the proceeds for pink ribbon-attached products to the National Breast Cancer Foundation as part of the Pink Ribbon Campaign, which emphasizes the importance of early detection, treatment, and diagnosis of breast cancer. In addition, Pilot Pen Deutschland also continues to donate to breast cancer awareness and research groups.