Morisawa Inc. (president and CEO: Akihiko Morisawa; headquarters: 2-6-25 Shikitsu Higashi, Naniwa-ku, Osaka; “Morisawa” hereafter) agrees to co-develop fonts owned by Sha-Ken Co., Ltd. (president and CEO: Yoshitaka Kasahara; headquarters: 2-26-13 Minami Otsuka, Toshima-ku, Tokyo; “Shaken” hereafter) into OpenType fonts.

Shaken fonts, which are characterized by wide varieties and sophisticated design, are being used in many media via its proprietary system. Through the OpenType font development, the two companies will work toward making them available in a wider range of uses.

The fonts will be released sequentially starting in 2024. 2024 marks the 100^th anniversary of a patent application for a Japanese phototypesetting machine which expresses Japanese characters and typesets using photographic principles. The patent was co-filed by Mokichi Ishii, the founder of Shaken, and Nobuo Morisawa, the founder of Morisawa.

The head of each company offered the following comments on this joint project:

Sha-Ken Co., Ltd. president/CEO, Yoshitaka Kasahara

“I feel deep emotions to be able to start a joint project with Morisawa with whom we created a Japanese phototypesetting machine. We will put in the utmost effort so that Shaken fonts can be used by more people in the future.”

Morisawa Inc. president/CEO, Akihiko Morisawa

“I feel heartfelt joy to be able to co-develop fonts with Shaken on the 100^th anniversary of invention of a Japanese phototypesetting machine. Our entire group will strive wholeheartedly so that the perennially beloved Shaken fonts can be used by many people for years to come.”

We will provide updates regarding font lineups and their offered formats.

For inquiry regarding this matter, please contact:

Morisawa USA Inc.
info@morisawa-usa.com