Ryosuke Namiki, who was an alumnus and professor of Tokyo Nautical School, successfully invented a gold writing tip for fountain pens and established Namiki Manufacturing Co., Ltd., in 1918 with 200,000 yen in capital to start the production and sales of fountain pens. Namiki 's success owed to the collaboration from his friend and classmate Masao Wada. In 1938, the corporate name was changed to the Pilot Pen Co., Ltd., as the company grew.

Pilot means a pathfinder who proceeds at the head of a large ship. A ring buoy, the company emblem, stands for the spirit of overcoming difficulties to be unsinkable in a rough sea and the strong ties of friendship. In succeeding years, our products, such as fountain pens, mechanical pencils, roller ball pens, and marking pens, evolved to be widely used in foreign markets. Thereby, the corporate brand of Pilot became famous as high-quality Pilot and regarded as a synonym for writing instruments. However, our voyage up to the present date was never easy. We had to overcome thousands of wild waves.

In 1989, due to our strategy of business diversification, the corporate name was changed to Pilot Corporation. In January 2002, Pilot Group Holdings Corporation was established by stock transfer, jointly from Pilot Corporation, The Pilot Ink Co., Ltd., and The Pilot Precision Co., Ltd., for business restructuring of the group. As a part of the restructuring, the corporate name was changed to PILOT CORPORATION after the merger of Pilot Group Holdings Corporation and Pilot Corporation in July 2003. The merger was a source of an operating holding company with functions of mobile sales, product planning, and production in addition to the original function of management strategies for group companies. In 2008, PILOT CORPORATION merged with The Pilot Precision Co., Ltd., for the purpose of improving cost competitiveness and technological development capabilities in the writing instruments business by swiftly uniting production functions and manpower in the group. By the full use of strong brands, high technical and product capabilities, as well as excellent manpower, PILOT CORPORATION seeks to grow largely as a leader of the Pilot Group.