"Springs are not limited to metal. There are plastic springs and all kinds of springs. They come in a wide variety of shapes, and there are about 3,800 springs in a car."

This was told to us by Kenya Ota, Chairman and CEO of MMK, the production base for Nonoji's earpick series.
After working for a spring manufacturing company for 26 years, he went independent and used his knowledge and connections to start Nonoji ear picks.

"When I was consulted, I immediately said yes. However, I knew from the beginning that Nonoji's ear picks would be extremely difficult to make, especially since they are made of wire. It took more than a year to actually create a product."
Until then, MMK had mainly been manufacturing mechanical parts, so the job did not require any kind of guesswork.
However, what Nonoji seeks is beauty as an object.
It seems they struggled to bridge the gap between their demands and reality.

"The next step was to find a way to produce large quantities of the same product at the lowest possible cost. It took a lot of trial and error to establish a production line. Nonoji's ear picks are made in this shape by pressing a metal rod. However, if you press ordinary materials, they will break. After many meetings with material manufacturers, we arrived at the current material."

MMK produces the majority of Nonoji's earpicks, including the triple-loop wire earpick "Nonoji Refreshing Soft Earpick," "Nonoji Earpick Multi-Catch," and "Cotton Swab Earpick."
For the "cotton swab ear pick," Chairman Ota applied his experience in spring manufacturing to create a structure that would never fall out.

"If the tip of Nonoji's ear pick series falls off, we will receive a huge complaint. Our mission is to make products that do not fall off, not just the 'cotton swab ear pick'. We put 100% effort into this."
The metal rod that forms the handle of an ear pick inevitably gets buffing powder in the holes.
If left as is, the adhesive will not work and there is a risk that the tip will come off.

To avoid this, ethanol washing is carried out at the beginning of the manufacturing process.
Apparently each one is made by hand, not by machine.
Moreover, they are so thorough that they wash it twice.

"It is also important that they do not break during use. We conduct repeated tests, and have evidence that they will not break even after 100,000 tests, but there are still cases where they break. I worked for a spring company for a long time, so I can generally guess what caused the break by looking at the fracture surface. To prove this, we took photos of the fracture surfaces at the Kanagawa Prefectural Industrial Research Institute and analyzed them. As a result, we found that the cause of all the breakage was fatigue fracture."

If it can withstand 100,000 strokes, it will not break for approximately 27 years, even if you scratch it 10 times every day.
The quality is sufficient. Another thing MMK is proud of is its strict inspection system.

"We also conduct very strict inspections of the appearance of the surface. Our inspectors have keen eyes and will not miss even the slightest scratch. We inspect at every stage of the process, so we can confidently say that no defective products will slip through the cracks and make it onto the market. In fact, we have never received a single complaint or return due to the presence of foreign matter. We are proud to say that our appearance inspections are among the best in Japan."

It takes MMK about 20 days to complete one Nonoji earpick.
Finally, Chairman Ota answered the question: What is the driving force behind their continued commitment to high-quality manufacturing?
"I want to make something better than others. That's my only goal."