Gluing was once a dreaded task marred by problems such as glue sticking out of edges and uneven blots, slow drying time, dried out nozzles on bottles caused by forgetting to put the cap back on, and sticky hands. If there's no other choice, however, such hassles tend to be taken for granted as an unavoidable part of work and not as inconveniences. At KOKUYO, investigations and research are constantly being conducted in pursuit of pleasant and efficient products even if there is no perceived inconvenience. Pritt, a glue stick that KOKUYO first imported from Henkel in Germany for distribution in Japan in 1970 and started licensing for domestic production three years later, was a representative product that drastically reduced the inconveniences involved in gluing tasks. The glue tape that KOKUYO developed later was a product that further remedied the drawbacks of glue sticks (drying out caused by forgetting to put the cap on and the inability to use it all the way to the bottom of the stick). Glue tape had been marketed by various manufacturers in the industry from about 2000, and many similar products had already been available. All of them, including KOKUYO's, had almost the same design, which meant that they also had the same drawback. That drawback was that the glue was too viscous and became stringy when lifting the dispenser from the paper, resulting in a rather unattractive finish. This prompted KOKUYO to come up with ways to improve this defect in order to provide an even more user-friendly and high quality product. The development project was launched in 2002, and after three years and much trial and error, the Dot Liner was born. The starting point for the product was the idea that, If the glue is too viscous, we should make it so that the glue surface is separated from the dispenser right from the beginning. From there, the basic idea for arranging the glue in a dotted pattern was born, but it took a lengthy period of time to create a design with a good balance between various factors including shape, size, and adhesive strength. These painstaking efforts, however, were rewarded when the Dot Liner became a hit that sold one million units in the eight months from the time it was released in June 2005. Since then, a number of improvements have been made on the Dot Liner and various spin-off products have been developed, with the Dot Liner having grown into a popular line comprising 10 products and 31 models.