I worked for the X-ray company Shimadzu for a while during the Japanese bubble economy days...back in the late 1980's. The Upper sales manager there carried a montblanc 149, so all of his underlings ...including myself...carried a MB 146. To carry something else would have made the person stand out....and the Japanese often say that the nail that sticks out gets hammered. I saw a lot of men carry fountain pens during the bubble days; mainly to show off their wealth, and I can't remember too many of these people actually using them. Usually they carried ballpoints in their inner pockets and wrote with those, the MB's stayed in their outer jacket pockets where they could be seen.

School kids are taught the traditional brush calligraphy that has been part of the culture for centuries. No one in Japan had even heard of fountain pens until the 1910's, and then it was a tiny percentage who wanted to look modern. If you saw the movie "Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise, you might have noticed a scene on the streets of Yokohama. Most of the people were wearing cotton kimonos, but there were a few dandies with their western suits and bowler hats. These would have been the early Japanese fountain pen users. Fountain pens were not commonplace until the late 1930's. So their is little reason for the Japanese to teach fountain pen use in schools today. It was never a big part of the culture. At best it was an interest fad and then became a convenience. I imagine the opposite is also true. No Western kids are taught to mix their sumi ink and write with a brush.

At the same time, gift giving is a huge part of the culture here. You can not take a vacation without returning home with a suitcase full of souvenirs for your friends and family. Many people refrain from vacations just to avoid having to worry about the expected "omiage" gifts.

Pens are the favorite gifts for graduates, and students entering a new school. Pens were also given to people when they retired from a company, but that's a little outdated today...

I suspect that the fountain pen business would collapse in Japan if it were not for this gift culture and maki-e collectors.

Interestingly....very few people actually write with these gift pens. They open the present and ohhh and ahhh over it and decide that it is too nice to use. It would be a huge fax pas to lose or damage the pen. It would be an insult to the presenter, so the presentee keeps the pen safe in a desk drawer....pretty much until the day they die... and then their children sell them at flea markets and auction sites....

The only Japanese kids I know who actually use "real" pens are the kids learning graphic arts, mainly manga or comic artwork. And here it is always dip and G - pens.

I am sure that Stan, Russ and the others who have lived in Japan for some time can add more to this, but to wrap it up, The Japanese do not use fountain pens often if at all, even though many people own one.