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Walk into any Korean bookstore, dollar shop or back alley in Hongdae and one section reliably draws the longest queue: stationery. Korea's love affair with notebooks, pens, stickers and planners is older than the K-pop boom and just as visible to anyone who studies, journals or simply enjoys cute desk objects. The category, known in Korean as mungu, supports household names like Morning Glory and Monami alongside design chains such as ARTBOX, Kyobo Hottracks and the rapidly growing Daiso Korea.
Why Koreans take stationery so seriously
Stationery is woven into Korea's study culture, where students often spend long hours in libraries, dokseosil reading rooms and hagwon private academies. Premium pens and structured planners are seen as everyday tools rather than luxuries. The category has also been propelled by dakku, short for daieori kkumigi or diary decorating, a trend in which users layer washi tape, stickers, photos and handwritten notes into journals and planners. According to The Korea Times, stationery and office supply sales on local platform 29CM jumped 75 percent year on year in early February 2025, with journals and planners up 64 percent.
Monami: the pen that launched an industry
Founded in 1960, Monami released the Monami 153 ballpoint pen in 1963, the first ballpoint pen mass-produced in Korea. The hexagonal white-and-black barrel became a national icon, and the company reports that more than 3.6 billion units of the 153 have been sold over its lifetime. Monami remains the country's largest pen maker and is the standard ink found in offices, classrooms and government buildings. The brand returned to global headlines in 2025 when President Lee Jae Myung used a Monami-filled signing pen at the White House, prompting praise from US President Donald Trump and a limited-edition release at 70,000 won per set through Monami's online store and Kyobo Book Centre.
Morning Glory: the OG fancy stationery brand
Morning Glory, founded in 1981 and renamed in 1987, built a generation of Korean childhoods around its character-led notebooks, pencil cases and diaries featuring in-house mascots like Blue Bear and Pink Bear. The company operates a network of franchised Morning Glory shops near schools and universities and exports to more than 20 countries. While rivals such as Bareun stationery faded after the 1997 IMF crisis, Morning Glory remained a fixture of the school-supply aisle and continues to release seasonal planner collections each January.
ARTBOX: design-forward and K-pop friendly
ARTBOX (아트박스) is the chain younger Korean shoppers are likeliest to name first. Its bright, magazine-style storefronts in Hongdae, Myeongdong and Gangnam stock everything from notebooks and pens to plush toys, cosmetics and tech accessories, and the brand frequently collaborates with K-pop and animation IP. The Korea Times notes that customizable keycap keychains, a current bag-charm craze, can be purchased and assembled at stores like ARTBOX and Daiso, a sign of how stationery and fashion accessories are blurring in Korea.
Kyobo Hottracks: the bookstore stationery flagship
Kyobo Book Centre, Korea's largest bookstore chain, operates Hottracks as its dedicated stationery and lifestyle arm. The Gwanghwamun flagship next to Gwanghwamun Square dedicates entire floors to designer notebooks, fountain pens, digital accessories and K-pop albums. According to Hottracks data cited by The Korea Herald, sales of journals and planners doubled in 2020 versus the prior year, while diary decoration items grew eightfold over the same period.
Daiso Korea: 1,000-won wonders
Daiso Korea, fully Korean-owned since 2023, posted 3.96 trillion won in annual revenue in 2024 and now operates more than 1,500 stores nationwide. Roughly 80 percent of items are priced below 2,000 won. While its stationery range covers basics like notebooks, pens and folders, the chain has become a key hub for K-pop photocard accessories, with branches such as the 12-floor Myeongdong Station store dedicating entire floors to clear plastic sleeves, photocard binders and DIY sticker kiosks under the slogan "Daiso supports idol fandom."
10x10, Object and the indie design scene
Korean design-forward shoppers also rely on 10x10 (텐바이텐), an online and offline curator known for stationery from independent studios, and Object (오브젝트), an eco-conscious chain with stores in Hongdae and Hapjeong that emphasizes recycled paper and refillable products. Niche brands such as Oimu, Point of View and Blackheart, all profiled by Korean media for sharp year-on-year growth, sit alongside Japanese imports like Midori in their assortments.
Character stationery: Kakao Friends, LINE Friends and BT21
Character intellectual property dominates a large slice of Korea's stationery market. Kakao Friends, anchored by the lion Ryan, operates roughly 25 character stores across Korea, with flagships in Gangnam and Hongdae stocking notebooks, pens, mousepads and figurines. LINE Friends runs 21 Korean stores plus more than 120 internationally and collaborates with BTS on the BT21 line of plush toys and stationery. According to The Korea Times, Kakao characters have expanded into stationery, kitchenware and fashion accessories, while LINE Friends has partnered with brands like LAMY on premium pens.
Planner culture and the rise of "dakku"
Planner sales spike each January as Koreans buy their diary for the new year. The trend has been pushed beyond Gen Z into millennials, with premium fountain pens, ballpoint pens and pencils up 2.4 times on 29CM during the early-2025 stationery season. Korean planner apps such as Iconix's character-led offerings and the popular Day1Company tools complement, rather than replace, the paper diaries that drive demand at Hottracks, ARTBOX and Daiso.
Where tourists should shop for Korean stationery
Insadong remains a top destination for traditional Korean writing tools, with Geumokdang and Monami Mall on Insadong-gil stocking the brand's catalogue alongside fountain pen engraving services, according to VisitKorea and Visit Seoul. Hongdae offers the densest concentration of ARTBOX, Object and indie shops, while the Express Bus Terminal underground shopping arcade in Gangnam is known for cheap notebooks, stickers and DIY supplies. For one-stop browsing, the Kyobo Hottracks flagship in Gwanghwamun pairs Korea's largest bookstore with several thousand stationery SKUs in a single basement-level visit.
Korean stationery goes global
Korean stationery brands now ship far beyond Seoul. Morning Glory exports to more than 20 markets, Monami has rolled out international campaigns and limited editions, and ARTBOX, Daiso and Kakao Friends operate or supply stores across Asia, North America and Europe. The same goods that crowd a Korean student's desk are increasingly easy to find in Tokyo, Los Angeles and Manila, often through both physical stores and Korean e-commerce platforms.
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