Canon Inc. (Hepburn: ) is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, specializing in optical, imaging, and industrial products, such as lenses, cameras, police equipment, scanners, printers, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.[3]
Canon has a primary listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the TOPIX Core 30 and Nikkei 225 indexes. It used to have a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Name
The company was originally named. In 1934, it produced the Kwanon, a prototype for Japan's first-ever 35mm camera with a focal-plane-based shutter. In 1947, the company name was changed to Canon Camera Co., Inc., shortened to Canon Inc. in 1969. The name Canon comes from Buddhist bodhisattva, previously transliterated as Kuanyin, Kwannon, or Kwanon in English.[4]
History
1933–1970
The origins of Canon date back to the founding of Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory in Japan in 1933[5] by Takeshi Mitarai, Goro Yoshida, Saburo Uchida and Takeo Maeda. It became the company Precision Optical Instruments, Co., Ltd. in 1937.[5] During its early years, the company did not have any facilities to produce its own optical glass, and its first cameras incorporated Nikkor lenses from Nippon Kogaku K.K. (later, the Nikon Corporation).[6]
Between 1933 and 1936, 'The Kwanon', a copy of the Leica design, Japan's first 35 mm focal-plane-shutter camera, was developed in prototype form.[7] In 1940, Canon developed Japan's first indirect X-ray camera. Canon introduced a field zoom lens for television broadcasting in 1958, and in 1959 introduced the Reflex Zoom 8 and the
Products
Canon's products include cameras (including compact digital camera, video camera, film SLR and digital SLR), camcorders, lenses, broadcasting equipment and solutions (such as free viewpoint solution), professional displays, projectors, manufacturing equipment (including photolithography equipment such as steppers, scanners), printers, photocopiers, image scanners, digital microfilm scanners, fax machines, binoculars, microscopes, medical equipment (including diagnostic systems such as ultrasound, X-ray, CT and MRI scanners and ophthalmic equipment), CCTV solutions, image sensors, calculators, high precision positioning and measurement devices (such as rotary encoders), custom optical components, handy terminals, mixed reality systems, software, and space satellites.[40][41]
Discontinued products
Computers
Canon introduced two MSX home computer models in 1983, the V-10 and the V-20. Both offered just the minimum range of the MSX standards without any additional features. The V-20 was able to receive shooting data from the T90 Canon camera with the Data Memory Back T90 expansion.
Canon also sold a Canon AS100 PC[52] for which you could get a color or monochrome display computer, shortly after the release of the IBM PC. It was based on the Intel 8088 processor and used CP/M or MS-DOS. Options included an 8 MB hard drive.[53]
Operations
As of 2020, Canon is organized into four principal business segments:[54] Canon Inc. has 383 subsidiaries as of 31 June 2017. The number includes second-generation subsidiaries, for example, Canon IT Solutions Inc.
Canon's world headquarters is located at 30-2 Shimomaruko 3-chome, Ota-ku, Tokyo 146–8501, Japan. Canon has regional headquarters in America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Japan, Asia and Oceania (including Australia & New Zealand). Canon Europe has two principal subsidiaries: Canon Europa NV (based in Amstelveen, Netherlands) and Canon Europe Ltd. (based in Uxbridge, UK).
On 26 December 2003, Canon Inc. announced restructuring plans for three domestic Canon Group companies. The restructuring involved the merger of two companies and the spinning off of one.[55]
Canon generated total revenues of US$45,608 million in 2011, of which 53.9% was by the Office Business Unit, 36.9% by the Consumer Business Unit and 11.8% by the Industry and Others Business Unit.[56]
Environmental record
A report by the environmental organization Clean Air-Cool Planet puts Canon at the top of a list of 56 companies the survey conducted on climate-friendly companies.[57]
Canon has also launched three new calculators in Europe, called "Green Calculators", which are produced in part from recycled Canon copiers.[58]
The Canon Group has an environmental charter which looks at "offering products with a lower environmental burden through improvements in resource efficiency, while eliminating anti-social activities that threaten the health and safety of mankind and the environment".[59] In 2020, Canon joined WIPO GREEN as an official partner in an effort to address climate change.[60]
Spreading global warming skepticism
Charitable activities
In 2008, Canon donated financial support to help the estimated 5 million people displaced by the earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province in May 2008.[64] RMB 1 million was donated to the Red Cross Society of China shortly after the earthquake. Canon Inc., Japan, soon followed with a donation of RMB 10 million.[64]
Sponsorships
In 1983, Canon came as the first title sponsors of the English football league The Football League, which was named The Canon League from 1983 to 1986, when the sponsorship was taken over by the Today newspaper. Canon also sponsored Italian football club Hellas Verona FC between 1982 and 1986[65] including during the 1984–85 Serie A which they won.
From 1985 to 2002 Canon was title sponsor of the Greater Hartford Open, now Travelers Championship.[66] In Formula One, Canon sponsored Williams between 1985 and 1993, while they won World Drivers Championships for Nelson Piquet (1987), Nigel Mansell (1992) and Alain Prost (1993) and Four World Constructors Championships (1986, 1987, 1992, 1993). In the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix, Canon sponsored Brawn GP.[67] Between 1992 and 1997 it also sponsored the South Sydney Rabbitohs.[68]
See also
- Canon Open
- Nikon
External links
References
- Canon Annual Report Canon, retrieved 15 October 2023^
- https://global.canon/ja/csr/people-and-society/labor/data.html Canon, retrieved 1 October 2022^
- Our Business Canon Global, retrieved 2025-10-13^