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Japanese Pen With Real Parasites Swimming Around Inside It Goes Viral

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Japanese Pen With Real Parasites Swimming Around Inside It Goes Viral

If you’ve checked social media today, you may have stumbled across a see-through ballpoint pen with real parasites swimming around inside it (and maybe dismissed it as AI slop). Prompting grossed-out reactions and comparisons to Resident Evil, the pen is actually a real souvenir from Japan’s Kochi Prefecture.

Earlier this year, Japan’s Asahi News fished out the origins of this strange writing implement. Even though the pen looks like something you’d find on Wesker’s desk, it’s a real product purchasable from a fishmongers’ shop in Susaki city, Kochi Prefecture. The transparent section of the pen contains living Anisakis, a type of fish-dwelling parasite, suspended in a clear liquid. The parasite can cause food poisoning if you eat raw or uncooked fish containing it. Lovely.

The company behind the pen is not Umbrella Corporation but local company Tada Suisan. According to company president Takuhiro Tada, the inspiration came from an acquaintance on social media back in 2021 who “was putting Anisakis extracted from his own stomach into ballpoint pens.” In his original video post, pen creator FUNA84 quipped that, “If you use it when signing the consent form for Anisakis extraction surgery at the hospital, you can show them you’re an Anisakis master!”

Inspired by FUNA84’s post, Tada tried making an Anisakis pen for fun but “it got such a big reaction, that I decided to sell them at the store.”

The Anisakis are extracted from caught fish (specifically skipjack/bonito), and so the number of pens made by the company each week depends on the catch. “Sometimes we make about 20 pens a day, while at other times we might not make any for a week,” Tada explained.

The pens have previously created waves on Japanese news and social media back in 2024 but this time, they have caught the attention of users outside Japan — especially players of a certain Capcom survival horror series. Resident Evil fans have been quipping that it’s an “Umbrella Corporation 5-year work anniversary present.” Even Resident Evil’s Community and Social Media Manager for Europe noted that the pen sounds like something that would pop up in an ominous in-game diary entry…

Posting on April 8, Tada himself reacted to the pens going viral, saying that he understood why the product was causing a stir but noted that the content had been shared by unauthorized reposter accounts. He also mentioned that there have been some threatening comments.

The Anisakis pens have also stirred up ethical debates online, with some suggesting that they are pointless cruelty to living things. It certainly looks like the kind of pen Umbrella scientists would have used when taking notes on the latest mutant experiment.

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Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

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