In the competition for writing ever sharper lines, pen makers have been jostling for the title of the world's smallest ball points.
The effort isn't merely an attempt to satisfy engineers' egos; it is a critical part of the stationery industry's latest trend: ball point pens that can draw razor-sharp lines for writing microscopic kanji.
The field was pioneered by Pilot Corp., a leader in the industry, which released a pen with a ball diameter of 0.3 mm in June 1994. Before that, 0.5-mm balls had been the smallest.