Iwako USA is the prime importer of Iwako Japanese erasers in the US. As a retailer of the Japanese erasers, we buy all our erasers from Iwako USA. This is unlike the wholesale suppliers of Silly Bands. A few weeks ago, we were getting multiple solicitations a day from different wholesalers hawking Silly Bands.

Iwako USA Japanese eraser offerings is much more extensive than that of Iwako Japan or any of the other handful of importers of Iwako Japanese erasers. Iwako USA creates new colors of existing erasers. Those new color variations are not sold to the other smaller importers by Iwako Japan, at least not for the first few months of production.

We make sure that we post every variation of Japanese erasers that we can obtain. Some, we just receive a few and then no more. Others we have constant stock.

An employee of ours, visited the Iwako factory in Japan a couple weeks back. She brought with her some Iwako Japanese erasers that we did not know existed. We will be posting pictures of those on the blog in a while.

Iwako USA has released a 60 piece master box containing only all white versions of the teddy bear, horse, elephant, pig , hamster and cow Japanese erasers. The teddy bear, elephant and pig Japanese erasers are new. The others were previously available.

We could not resist combining Series 1 and 2 Frog Japanese erasers to make Lulu's epic frog eraser set. We will have some massive epic sets that we will put together for Christmas.

Along with the Unicorn Japanese Erasers that arrived today, Series 2 Frog Japanese erasers appeared. We only found out about these new pastel colored frog Japanese erasers early last week. Series 1 Frog Japanese erasers will be discontinued and once we run out there will be no more.

When we first received the samples of the Iwako Unicorn Japanese erasers, included was an all white Unicorn Japanese eraser. Today, when we received our shipment, the Iwako 60 piece master box contained only 10 pieces each of the six colored Unicorn Japanese erasers, but no white Unicorns.

An inquiry made to Iwako USA revealed that the all white Unicorn erasers will ship sometime later in August. They will be packed as an all white 60 piece unicorn Japanese eraser box. If you signed up to be notified when the 7 piece Unicorn Japanese eraser set arrived, this is why when you get to sausalitoferry.com there will be only the 6 piece set available.

Iwako and Dream Zensinsyoji are the two companies that make the Japanese erasers. The companies are owned by brothers and are run separately. The companies design their Japanese erasers independently from each other. So how do you tell the Japanese erasers apart?
The header cards are different. Iwako's cards make it very clear that the erasers are made by them as do the newer header cards from Dream Zensinsyoji. The older cards from Dream Zenisnyoji are all in Japanese and have the typical cute Japanese illustrations on them.
Just looking at theJapanese erasers, you can make some generalizations about the Dream Zensinsyoji erasers that could help you identify them. Dream Zenisinsyoji erasers tend to be smaller in size and often are packaged in pairs, but not always. The birthday cakes, icing cakes and banana pastries are some of the exceptions.
Dream Zensinsyoji tends to use pastel colors.
On sausalitoferry.com, the manufacturer is always listed with the eraser so you can use the site to help you identify your Japanese erasers.

We have started a Japanese eraser forum which is only one button to the right of the blog button. Instead of us droning on about all things Japanese erasers, now you can have your say.

The forum is set up such that all comments have to be approved by us before they are posted. We are screening them so that nothing inappropriate gets into the forum.

As so typical of Dream Zensinsyoji each time we receive Japanese erasers from them, the colors often change. With this batch of Penquin with baby Japanese erasers we did not get any new colors. We did get new color combinations. We are showing 15 different combinations on the site, but some are out of stock. Dream Zensinsyoji must of had lots of yellow baby penquins, as 3 of the 4 penquin pair Japanese erasers came with yellow babies.

Iwako USA will release 7 colors of unicorn Japanese erasers in August. As usual, they will be sold as a set and individually.

The colors of the unicorn Japanese erasers are the same as the horse Japanese erasers with one exception. The unicorns come in yellow. There is no yellow horse Japanese eraser.

As always, Dream Zensinsyoji is always sending new colors of their Japanese erasers. The icing cake Japanese eraser comes now in a lavender color. We received only a handful, but they are on the site.