Tokyo Factory Immersion | The factories

ANSHINDO Co., Ltd.

THE MASTER OF PAD PRINTING

Anshindo is a unique factory specialized in pad printing. People come to the factory as “the last resort” for any printing solution, which is special, complicated, difficult, or sometimes even outrageous.

But, what’s so special about it?

Watch this ad. In the arrow, it says “the world’s smallest advertisement”, an ad printed on a piece of rice. It was an advertisement made for promoting a new music album by a Japanese artist. In October 2017, this ad was put up on several major stations in Tokyo with the printed rice actually pasted on the wall.

“The ad agent came to us because they knew we were the only one who could do such kind of printing,” says Kanji Maruyama, the founder and the chairman of Anshindo.

(Note) braille: a form of written language for blind people, in which characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that are felt with the fingertips.

Anshindo is a family run business founded in August 1974. When asked why the company became so special, Maruyama replies “Because I’d learned everything by myself. Never have worked in a printing company. I always had to find a new solution without any help from others. For me, innovation has always been a necessity.” He says whatever clients bring, he maintains positiveness. “I’ve never rejected a work because of its difficulty or complexity. I have a belief that whatever could be imagined by a man, there’s a way to make it happen. The thing is I just need to continuously think of how. I’m really bad at giving up.”

But Maruyama doesn’t hesitate to share its knowledge with others. In fact, he now thinks himself as an evangelist of pad printing. He not only sells multi-purpose personal pad printing machine but he also spends substantial time teaching skills to the clients. Instead of asking clients to bring him a work, he recommends to DIY. “Now, my main business is teaching,” says Maruyama with a smiling face.