The 10 Japanese Scissor Brands to Know

How this list works

Ask five educators to name the Japanese brands a stylist should know and you will get five different lists. This one has a simple rule: every brand here holds a catalogued ScissorPedia page with live product data behind it, so every founding year, steel name, model count, and price you read below comes from that brand’s own page. The order is documented founding date, oldest first. The three youngest names close the list. Nothing here is a quality ranking; a 1908 founding date does not cut hair, and neither does a marketing budget.

Guide prices shift with stock and exchange rates. Treat every figure as a guide and confirm on the brand page before you spend.

The century houses

1. Kasho (founded 1908). KAI has forged blades since 1908, and Kasho is the company’s professional shear line, built in Seki City. The 38 catalogued models run 4.5 to 7.0 inches across VG-10W, ATS-314, and SG2 steels, with guide prices from $179 to $2,124. A dedicated left-handed range sits alongside the standard catalogue.

2. Joewell (1917). Tokosha has made cutting tools in Tokyo since 1917 and has used the Joewell name on its professional scissors since 1975. The 41 catalogued models span CBA-1 cobalt alloy flagships down to supreme stainless workhorses, at guide prices between $227 and $800. Three left-handed pairs are catalogued.

3. Mizutani (1921). A family company building scissors since 1921, with every pair made individually at its factory in Chiba. Its 114 catalogued models form the deepest single-brand range on this site, from 4.3 inch detail scissors to 7.0 inch shears, in steels from Nano Powder Metal to Stellite. Guide prices run $500 to $5,000.

The post-war workshops

4. Naruto (1963). The Takarazuka workshop has built professional shears since 1963 and still finishes every pair by hand. Naruto’s 56 catalogued models run 5.3 to 7.0 inches in the brand’s sintered cobalt alloy, with guide prices from about $350 to $2,770 through authorised dealers.

5. Yasaka (1965). Founded in Ikoma, Nara Prefecture, Yasaka puts vacuum heat treatment and sub-zero hardening into its blades. The 20 catalogued models, five of them sets, run 440C at the core with ATS-314 and VG-10 on the upper cutting models, at guide prices of $227 to $617. Distribution covers the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Japan.

6. Hikari (1967). Convex scissors are widely credited to Hikari, which holds the first Japanese patent on the blade angle and polishing method behind the hamaguri-ba edge. Founded in Tokyo in 1967, the company catalogues 50 cobalt alloy models from 4.5 to 7.25 inches, including ten left-handed pairs, at guide prices from about $343 to $1,950.

7. TOGINON (1980). A Seki, Gifu company that handles planning, manufacturing, sales, and maintenance in-house, by its own account. TOGINON builds its 36 catalogued models on a proprietary cobalt powder steel, in sizes from 5.2 to 7.0 inches, at guide prices from $77 to $640. That low entry point makes it the cheapest route to a Seki-built pair in this guide.

The modern names

8. Ichiro (2004). Ichiro prices Japanese steel for the working stylist. Founded in 2004 and based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, the brand hand-finishes its blades in a Saitama workshop and builds on 440C, VG-10, and ATS-314. Of its 58 catalogued models, 23 are matched cutting-and-thinning sets, and guide prices run about $116 to $443.

9. Juntetsu. The name means purest steel, and the Nihonbashi, Tokyo brand builds its range around exactly that idea: VG-10, cobalt alloy, and 440C blades. Sixty catalogued models cover cutting, thinning, and texturising work plus 15 matched sets, at guide prices from about $129 to $586.

10. Mina. Mina builds for the first kit. Fourteen of its 31 catalogued models are matched sets, every pair is hand-finished and triple-inspected at the brand’s Saitama workshop, and guide prices run just $64 to $250 in SUS440C or 7Cr stainless. Students and apprentices are the stated focus, and the price band shows it.

The ten side by side

How we chose

Three filters, applied in the open. First, catalogued depth: each brand needed a meaningful, priced model range on this site, and the ten here carry between 20 and 114 models apiece. Second, documented history: a founding year, a home base, or a named workshop stated on the brand’s own page, not inferred. Third, steel range: every brand had to publish what its blades are made of, because steel is the spec that predicts how a scissor behaves between sharpenings. The founding-date order keeps us honest; it rewards nothing except a paper trail.

What this list deliberately ignores: social following, sponsorship deals, and how often a name appears in group chats. Those change monthly. Catalogue data ages better.

Where to start

Match the brand band to your career stage rather than buying the oldest name you can afford. Students and apprentices get full Japanese sets from Mina or Ichiro for less than a single mid-tier pair. A first serious upgrade lands naturally in Juntetsu or Yasaka territory, where VG-10 and ATS-314 appear under $600. Stylists cutting all day, every day, are the audience for Hikari, Naruto, Kasho, and Joewell cobalt work, and Mizutani’s $500 to $5,000 catalogue is the final-pair tier. For the steel logic behind those jumps, read the steel buying path, then sanity-check prices against the budget roundup before anyone talks you past your budget. The history behind Seki City, which produces an estimated 99% of Japan’s professional hairdressing scissors, is in the Seki heritage guide.