I’d first like to take this opportunity to thank our truly exceptional clients. The passion, trust and dedication you bring to Japanese sword collecting has meant everything to Unique Japan over the past twenty years, and for that I am forever grateful.  Arigato gozaimasu!

I am especially thankful to members of the US Armed Forces in Japan (and outside of Japan).  For it was YOU that encouraged me to seek out Japanese nihontô (swords) and provided Unique Japan with the location of our first sword show back in 2010 on Yokota Air Base!

I thought on this page I’d share with you a bit of my life story.  Collecting Japanese swords is a personal endeavour and I feel it’s important that you know something about who you are putting your trust and confidence in.

I grew up in small town called Rosemere, Quebec, a half-hour north of Montreal, Canada.  As a kid, I loved playing soccer (er.. football), hanging around pools, playing tennis, very active.  I was a paperboy, lifeguard, and I became a competitive swimmer right up to and including my university years.

In 1993, at the age of 22 and shortly after graduating from the University of Western Ontario majoring in Economics & Business, I moved to Tokyo to become an English teacher and travel the world.

Ask anyone who has lived in Japan for any extent of time, the story is one with a full spectrum of emotional experiences. Outrageous, funny, frustrating, amazing, tough, intoxicating, humbling, stressful, addictive, the list goes on and on…

In short, there is no place on earth quite like Japan.

Although I was hired to teach on a one-year contract with NOVA, full-time teaching was not for me.  Encouraged by a friend back home, I became a freelance model and actor in Japan as Japanese companies are always looking for western faces to market their products and services abroad.  Not long after I started, I began appearing in numerous TV commercials, promotional videos, fashion magazines, even on a package of hair bleach for men!  Watch an enjoyable YouTube video on my channel that I made about some of these projects.

In 1995, I became the original voice of Albert Wesker for a survival horror video game called Resident Evil (Biohazard) that was released in March of 1996.  Little did I know how iconic of a villain this character would become and how massive of a franchise Resident Evil would be worldwide!  I keep in contact with the Resident Evil community primarily through my son’s YouTube channel called Lexonal where he plays the RE games and I sit back and commentate! Catch us most Sunday evenings at 7pm British time for our livestream. It’s great fun.

In 1997 I headed back to Canada, and studied the up and coming ‘Internet’ and learned how to code in HTML and started creating my own websites.  A year later, I moved back to Japan in 1998 and started MarchForth International Co., Ltd. building websites for major Japanese companies such as Nissan, Pasona, and Mitsui Bussan. The concept was to encourage Japanese companies to harness the power of the Internet to become more international – and to give their websites an professional look and feel.

MarchForth grew to a successful team of international designers and coders and was highly rewarding building a company from scratch. A few years later I became a founding member of a fintech startup in Tokyo that grew into Paidy, one of Japan’s leading buy-now-pay-later services, acquired by PayPal in 2021.

In the summer of 1999, I met Donna Canning and we got married in Tokyo in 2002.  Donna is a talented origami and Ikebana artist. We’ve now been married for nearly twenty-five years and have three children together, Hannah, Lennon and Nelson (the barbarian!).

Itching to work on our own project, we harnessed a great admiration for history and those who make awe-inspiring objects with their hands. True artisans, in every sense of the word.  Well, I can honestly say that craftspeople in Japan take the cake for their discipline and relentless pursuit of perfection. It’s simply in their DNA.

In short, the objects have a spirit, a soul.

Thus with the help of Donna and the team at MarchForth, we set out to build Unique Japan to be a trusted source for the finest crafts from Japan, and deliver to the world. This was no easy task, but build it we did, and we went live with Unique Japan in June 2006.  Kitchen knives from Takefu and Daruma dolls from Takasaki were the early best sellers.

I have been passionate about antique Japanese swords since the day I encountered my first one in Tokyo – and that passion has only deepened. For me, and for many collectors who own one, an antique Japanese sword is not merely an object. It embodies the soul of Japan itself – the craft, the history, the extraordinary teamwork that goes into every blade. You can genuinely feel the history in your hands. That conviction sits at the heart of everything Unique Japan does.

What sets Unique Japan apart from virtually any other dealer in this field is our dual presence – boots on the ground in Tokyo and a client services base in the UK. That combination matters far more than it might first appear. Our Tokyo studio means we can physically import swords, attend NBTHK and NTHK-NPO shinsa sessions, submit swords for polishing, arrange sayagaki, and manage every aspect of Japanese sword care in-country. My UK base means our international clients; across Europe, North America, Australia and beyond can communicate with me easily.

Our Tokyo team is led by Ayumu Ogusu, who heads all operations – from helping source swords to being my trusted eyes in Japan. Yuki Ando manages all active projects with meticulous attention and is responsible for our exceptional packaging – clients regularly comment on how well their sword arrives. Nomura Joji is my ‘fixer’ (believe me you need a man like this in Japan) – I have known N-san since the early days of MarchForth nearly thirty years ago. Masaomi ‘John’ Watanabe leads all photography – his work speaks for itself. Our studio is located in Meguro, conveniently close to both JR Meguro and Ebisu stations. Clients visiting Japan who would like a private viewing are welcome to contact us at service@uniquejapan.com to arrange a meeting.

Donna and I now live in the coastal city of Southend-on-Sea (an hour east of London) with our three children after spending nearly 20 years in Japan. This move now makes it even more possible to share Unique Japan with an audience outside of Japan, especially here in the UK and in Europe.

Now in my mid-50s (I was born in 1971), I decided to grow a beard(!) and enjoy hiking trips wherever I can. My eldest son, Lennon, and I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in December 2025, a huge and exhilarating accomplishment for both of us. The following movies will never get old to me: ‘Highlander’, ‘Fletch’, ‘Step Brothers’ just to name a few. I am also a massive fan of Neil Diamond. 😉

I am still travelling back and forth to Japan on sword buying trips and private meetings with VIP clients. If you ever want to reach any of us, simply use our contact form here.

Thank you for visiting Unique Japan. We look forward to working with you.

Warm regards,

Pablo Kuntz
Founder, Unique Japan