History

The predecessor company was established in 1930 by Goro Yoshida and his brother-in-law Saburo Uchida. Named , it was funded by Takeshi Mitarai, a close friend of Uchida. Its original purpose was to develop a 35 mm rangefinder camera.

In June 1934, they released their first camera, the Kwanon (see "Origins of company name" below). Three variations of this product were marketed, however, none were actual products. Of the ten Kwanon cameras that were rumored to be produced, none were ever known to reach the market.

Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory had not developed a lens. Several alternatives were considered, but the decision was made to seek help from a corporation known as Nippon Kogaku Kogyo (Japan Optical Industries, Inc., the predecessor of Nikon) to use their Nikkor lens. In February 1936, the Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory released the "Hansa Canon (Standard Model with the Nikkor 50 mm f/3.5 lens)", which became Kwanon's first commercially available camera.

The following year the company name was changed to Canon to reflect a more modern image, and on 10 August 1937, the current corporation was founded.

Today, despite the company's high profile in the consumer market for cameras and computer printers, most of the company revenue comes from the office products division, especially for analog and digital copiers, and its line of imageRUNNER digital multifunctional devices.

Canon has also entered the digital displays market by teaming up with Toshiba to develop and manufacture flat panel televisions based on SED, a new type of display technology. The joint venture company SED Inc. was established in October 2004. In January 2007, Canon announced that it would buy Toshiba's share of the joint venture. This move was triggered by litigation from Nano-Proprietary, Inc., which claimed Canon breached a license agreement by sharing technology licensed to Canon with the joint venture company.

Canon has also announced it is developing OLED and rear-projection displays.

Origins of company name

Looking to the mass market the following year, Uchida looked for a more modern sounding name, settling on "Canon". The word means "authoritative scriptures" in English, and it was felt that this implies accuracy, a desired trait in a camera. The company trademarked the name Canon on 26 June 1935.

Environmental report

According to a report by the New England-based environmental organization Clean Air-Cool Planet, Canon tops the list of 56 companies the survey conducted about climate-friendly companies.

To further show the company's commitment to the environment, Canon launched three new calculators in Europe, called "Green Calculators", which are produced, in part, from recycled Canon copiers.