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Hobonichi Techo 2027 Planner, the Arts&Science Book: A Buyer's File

Hobonichi's 2027 type guide lists three books in English that are A6 and one page per day. One is the English edition of its Original. One is the English HON, a hardcover version. The third is the Planner, made under the direction of Sonya Park, owner of the Tokyo select shop Arts&Science, and the only one of the three that the guide lists in English alone; the other two are English editions of books Hobonichi also sells in Japanese. A shopper who wants "the English Hobonichi" in A6 has to pick one, and the differences are in the specification pages rather than in the names.

This page is for the Planner, and for the choice most shoppers face first: the Planner or the English Original. It sets those two side by side from Hobonichi's own specification pages and says which differences could change what you buy. The HON comes in where the cover does, below. The English Original has its own file, which also covers how to tell Hobonichi's Amazon listings from a reseller's and what Hobonichi's own store adds at checkout; this page relies on it for both. If you have not yet decided on A6 and a page per day, the planner guide comes first.

Before the rest: I work for a Japanese planner maker, which competes with the makers named on this page; none of them is a customer or a supplier of mine, I have no business with any of them, and I do not use my employer or its products as a source or an example. I have not handled any of these books. Everything below comes from Hobonichi's English and Japanese product pages and its type guide, read on 26 September 2026, and from the Amazon listing, read the same morning under two US ZIP codes. Where I give a view of my own, I say so.

Side by side, from Hobonichi's specification pages

The Planner column is from the Planner's English specification page; the Original column is from the English Original's, read the same morning, and matches the figures in its file.

The store's shelf prices are before shipping and duty; those terms, and how they differ from Amazon's, are gathered in the Original's file. Hobonichi lists one Planner book for 2027; the "charcoal gray and red" it mentions describes the printing on the pages, not a choice of colours.

Which differences could change the purchase

Most of the table is the same on both sides: the size, the daily and monthly pages, the index, the Monday start. What differs, in the order I would weigh it:

The grid. Hobonichi gives the Planner's squares as 4 mm and the Original's as 3.7 mm on the daily pages; for the monthly pages it gives the Original a figure (3.45 mm) and the Planner none, so I cannot compare those. The daily-page difference is 0.3 mm a square. My own view, as someone who has written in neither book: that is a difference to weigh only if the size of your handwriting already decides which ruled notebooks you buy.

The bonus pages. Four pages appear in both books: My 100, Hard-to-Translate Japanese Words, the Kanda/Jinbo-cho map and Personal Notes. Only the Planner has Important Contacts, International Size Charts, The Ultimate Packing List and The Japanese Sando. Only the Original has Time Table, Graph Paper, Favorites, Phrases to Break That Writer's Block, Words to Remember, the 365 Days Check-Off Sheet, Looking Back at the Year 2027, Getting the Most Out of Your Hobonichi Techo, Gifts and Addresses. The names are Hobonichi's; which set you would use is your call.

The cover. Hobonichi's English page describes the Planner as having "a matte cover subtly foil-pressed with the Japanese characters for 'techo' alongside the Arts&Science key logo", with the year and "HOBO" in gold on the spine. Its Japanese page is more specific about the material: マットな質感のクロス張り, a cloth-covered binding with a matte finish. The same Japanese and English pages still say the Hobonichi Techo "is designed to be used with a cover", and list Original (A6) covers as the ones that fit. Because both books take the same covers, a cover adds the same cost to either. If the reason you are drawn to the Planner is not wanting to buy a cover at all, look at the HON instead: Hobonichi's type guide describes it as "a hardcover design already attached to the book" that "can be used on its own without a cover", with the same format and contents as the Original, and lists an English edition in A6. The HON is not assessed on this page.

The layout, in Hobonichi's words. Hobonichi describes the Planner as "refined and simplified to make it easy to use in all countries and languages", with "the color scheme of charcoal gray and red" and bonus pages of its own; its planner-choosing guide, quoted in the planner guide on this site, calls it "An English-language techo with an unobtrusive and supportive layout". I found no page-by-page description of how its daily page differs from the Original's beyond the figures in the table, so I do not offer one.

Holidays. For the English Original, and for the English HON, Hobonichi's type guide says "The calendars do not list holidays." For the Planner I found no statement either way: neither "holiday" on its English product page and type guide entry, nor 祝日 or 休日 on its Japanese product page, all read on 26 September 2026. That is a gap in what I could find, not a claim about the printed book.

Price at Hobonichi's store. The Planner's shelf price there was $5.00 higher than the English Original's on the day. On Amazon, compare the two listings yourself; this site does not copy Amazon's prices. Whether the Planner carries a store bonus of its own, as the Original does at Hobonichi's shop, I have not checked.

The smaller differences, 14 memo pages against 17 and the week number printed on the Planner's daily pages as well as its monthly ones, are unlikely to decide it alone, but they are there.

One more thing, because it can mislead. The Amazon listing's description presents the Planner's daily pages and content as the same as the English Original's. Hobonichi's own specification pages give the two books different grid sizes, page counts and bonus pages, as the table shows. Go by the specification pages.

If those differences point you to the Planner, this is Hobonichi's own listing on Amazon US: → Hobonichi Techo 2027 Planner, English, A6, sold by Hobonichi. A paid link; it is repeated at the end.

On Amazon

Under ZIP 10001 and again under 90012, the Planner's listing (ASIN B0H6P85HKR) named Hobonichi Co., Ltd. [Official] as the seller and Amazon as the shipper, and its all-offers panel showed no second seller. Its seller code matched Hobonichi's, by the check the Original's file sets out. Three searches for the 2027 Planner turned up no second Amazon page for the same book from another seller, as there was for the Original and the Cousin that morning. That is what those searches found, not a guarantee about the catalogue. Price, stock and delivery date are on the listing.

Not assessed on this page

Among others: the English HON, the Japanese-language Originals, the Avec sets, the Arts&Science covers, Hobonichi's other formats, and any other maker's A6 daily planner. They are listed so you know they were left out, not because they were weighed and found wanting.

Buying it

If the grid, the bonus pages or the cloth binding have decided it for the Planner, this is Hobonichi's own listing:

→ Hobonichi Techo 2027 Planner, English, A6, sold by Hobonichi

If they have decided it for the English Original, its file has the listing and the checks that go with it.