[Report] "500,000 Won Stationery Flex for Personal Taste"... Japanese Brands Draw Huge Crowds in Seongsu

LOFT Holds Its First-Ever Pop-Up in Korea, Jointly Planned with 29CM
More Than 10,000 Paid Tickets Sold at 2,900 Won Each
A Total of 39 Stationery Brands from Korea and Japan, Including Hobonichi, Participate

"I bought 500,000 won worth of products, from the Hobonichi five-year diary to Post-its."

On September 2 in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, the stationery pop-up store "Page to Pages" opened its doors. The hands of one customer who had just finished checking out were full of Japanese stationery brand products such as diaries, stickers, Post-its, and pens. These are products that are usually difficult to find domestically or needed to be purchased directly from overseas. This customer said, "I love stationery so much that every time I visit Japan, I make it a point to look for stationery stores," adding, "I ended up buying more than I expected because I could see new releases from various brands all in one place."

On the 2nd, people lined up in a long queue to enter the stationery pop-up store "Page to Pages," jointly planned by the online fashion platform 29CM and the Japanese lifestyle goods specialty store LOFT, held in Seongsu-dong, Seoul.

This pop-up, organized in a two-story building of about 1,000 square meters, was co-planned by the online fashion platform 29CM and the Japanese lifestyle goods specialty store LOFT. This is the first time LOFT has opened a pop-up store under its own name in Korea. Despite requiring a paid ticket costing 2,900 won, some time slots were sold out within three days of pre-sales opening. 29CM predicted that over 10,000 people would visit the pop-up store over its five-day run. The increase is attributed to a growing number of consumers who view stationery not just as practical office supplies but as collectibles that reflect their personal tastes.

As soon as you entered the "LOFT Curation Zone" on the first floor, displays were filled with diaries, notebooks, stickers, masking tapes, and more. Twenty-nine Japanese stationery brands, including Hobonichi, Ashford, Hynynote, Furukawa Shiko, and Papier Platz, participated. Among them, 14 brands either lack official domestic sales channels or are difficult to find either online or offline in Korea.

The Hobonichi section, a Japanese diary brand, was especially crowded with customers. Hobonichi, meaning "almost every day," is a brand that started in 2002 with the concept of a "diary for daily use." They offer a wide variety of products to fit different journaling habits, including A6 and A5 sizes and five-year diaries. Their diary covers, made through collaborations with various artists and brands, are also popular. Since there is no official sales channel in Korea, customers have had to rely on purchasing directly from overseas or on-site in Japan.

The store even displayed the 2027-edition Hobonichi diary, which had just been released in Japan the previous day. In Japan, new-year diaries for the coming year are released every September 1. An event representative said, "We brought freshly released 2027 diaries to introduce the latest products to Korean customers."

On the 2nd, people are browsing products on the first floor of the stationery pop-up store "Page to Pages," jointly planned by the online fashion platform 29CM and the Japanese lifestyle goods specialty store LOFT, held in Seongsu-dong, Seoul.

At the custom notebook brand Hynynote booth, customers chose the cover, inner pages, size, and binding method, one by one. By combining their selected components, each customer could create a one-of-a-kind notebook. MT masking tape introduced a pop-up exclusive item inspired by gimbap. The pop-up emphasizes not only purchasing but also the experience of creating and collecting your own stationery.

The second floor features domestic stationery and lifestyle brands curated by 29CM. Ten brands participated, including One More Bag, OIMU, MOS, and Sososomungu. MOS unveiled an exclusive set of crayons, a collaboration with the Korean stationery company Jigu Hwahak, as a pop-up-only product. There was also an experience zone where people could combine their choice of paper, decorations, and strings to create their own bookmarks. The pop-up event will be held for five days, running through September 6.

The reason 29CM has put so much effort into the stationery pop-up is the rapidly growing "personalized stationery" market. From January to August this year, the transaction volume for stationery and office supplies on 29CM rose by over 48% compared to the same period last year. For diaries and planners, the volume grew 63%; for stickers, it jumped 45%. Book accessories such as bookmarks and book covers also saw a 30% increase. At the IGu Home Seongsu No. 1 store, more than 100,000 stationery items were sold during the same period.

LOFT, which began in 1987 in Shibuya, Tokyo, is now operating about 160 stores worldwide. As of the end of February 2026, its sales reached approximately 137.1 billion yen (about 1.23 trillion won).

A 29CM representative said, "This event is not only an opportunity to introduce brands with global competitiveness to Korean consumers, but also a chance to directly gauge customer response and demand. Moving forward, we plan to expand our search for global brands beyond stationery to include fashion and the broader lifestyle sector as well."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.