A Tour of a Fun Factory

Sep. 18.2019

Iwako Co., of Yashio City in Saitama Prefecture, produces plastic office and school supplies, mainly erasers, and kids especially love its “fun erasers.” We took a factory tour packed with adults who were more excited than the kids. Company founder Yoshikazu Iwasawa welcomed us personally.

 

Having worked for an office- and school-supply wholesaler, Iwasawa naturally chose the industry that makes them, and has been doing it for many years. After showing off his cute, colorful erasers, he started the factory tour.

The company founder spoke passionately about the part-production processes. Iwako employs various molds to make erasers in different shapes and , for Iwasawa, he tends to stick with established designs without much influence by the fad of the day like animals and vehicles because that can help the products staying long-time bestsellers.

He says, “There have been times when we’ve seen illegal knock-offs of our products on the market. We don’t see that as a big deal, though, rather it’s just a proof of how good and admired our products are. So we only need to make better products to get ahead.”

His company uses Kito electric hoists to change eraser molds, and some of the hoists have been in use for many years. Thank you, Iwako, for being a loyal customer!