Careers In Multimedia

The History of Canon - From an Optical Lab to a Multimedia Giant!
By John Sollars

Canon, according to the dictionary means is a general law, rule, principle or criterion; church decree or law; member of cathedral chapter; body of writings accepted as genuine.

Now what I am talking about is a company that manufactures user-friendly products! Canon the camera making company that now gives varied other products and services to the world such as printers, inks and fax machines and copiers!

Canon’s Roots

Canon’s roots were laid in 1933 with very few employees as a precision optical instruments lab. The Laboratory was founded in 1933 in a third-floor apartment of the Takekawaya Building in Roppongi, Azabu Ward, Tokyo. Its objective was to produce high-grade cameras.

A young man named Goro Yoshida, a passionate camera-lover; and his brother-in-law, Saburo Uchida, set up the Laboratory jointly. Their aim was to make cameras that could compete with the German models that were considered the most advanced of the day.

They started by analyzing existing cameras, which were difficult to obtain. Systematically, they studied each camera's internal workings, examined mechanisms, drew up design diagrams and procured parts. Takeshi Mitarai, a close friend of Uchida provided the funds required for the research. Mitarai later became president of the company and built its foundation.

It then went on to become a renowned camera making company. When it grew and decided to diversify its business plans it had to shed its image of a company that manufactured only cameras, therefore the top brass of the company decided to take on the name Canon Inc in 1969. The year1969 was also the year that canon forayed into business machines and eventually into the printing business.