Canon is a world leader of imaging and information products. Since its foundation in 1937, Canon has expanded its global businesses to various areas through years of efforts. At present, Canon has three product areas, which are consumer, office and industry areas. Its main products include camera and lens, digital camera, printer, copier, fax machine, scanner, broadcasting equipment, medical instrument and semiconductor production equipment, etc. Canon headquarter is based in Tokyo and has five regional sales headquarters in America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Japan, with 184 branch companies and 110,000 employees worldwide.

Canon ranked No.165 in Fortune "Top 500 Companies of 2003" and was listed No.5 among computer and office equipment companies. In 2004, Canon reached net sales of US$33.345 billion and net income of US$3.301 billion, both of which have broken historical new records.

In 1937, Canon began with optical technologies and the dream of becoming the world's top camera manufacturer. Since then, Canon has continuously developed new technologies and launched Japan's first common paper copier in early 1970's. In early 1980's, Canon successfully developed bubble jet printing technology and started to promote its products to the whole world. With high recognition and devotion in R&D, Canon has made continuous development and growth in past decades and become an industry leader. In 2004, Canon ranked No.3 in the list of corporations receiving U.S. patents provided by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. By then, Canon has been among the top 3 for the 13th consecutive year.

Canon Corporate Philosophy---Kyosei

At the same time while developing new technologies and products, Canon is also dedicated to be a truly excellent global corporation. As the corporate philosophy, kyosei is highly advocated by Canon. A concise definition of this word would be "living and working together for the common good", but Canon's definition is broader: "all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future." Unfortunately, the presence of imbalance in our world---in areas such as trade, income levels and the environmental---hinders the achievement of kyosei. Addressing these imbalances is a mission for the future, and Canon is doing its part by actively pursuing kyosei. True global companies must foster good relations, not only with their customers and the communities in which they operate, but also with nations, the environment and the natural world. They must also bear the responsibility for the impact to their activities on society. For this reason, Canon's goal is to contribute to the prosperity of the world and the happiness of humanity, which will lead to continuing growth and bring the world closer to achieving kyosei.

As a truly excellent global corporation, Canon attaches great importance to environmental protections and regards it as a strategic importance of company development. From the product development to raw material procurement, production, utilization, recycle and waste management, Canon makes environment performance assessment on the possible impact on whole product lifecycle. In 1990, Canon first commenced the used toner cartridge collection and recycling program and introduced it to other places in the world. Then Canon advocated "Green Procurement" plan within its global groups and co-operative factories, which means the procurement of materials and parts with a minimal impact on the environment. By now, all production bases of Canon have been certified to the ISO14001 standard, which is highly environmental required. In addition, Canon also holds various environmental protection activities such as funding for The Clean Earth Campaign throughout North America; holding the Canon Envirothon, a national environmental science contest for U.S. high school students; and supporting World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) activities in Europe, etc.

Mr. Fujio Mitarai, the 70-year-old Canon President and CEO took over Canon in 1995. Led by him, Canon has made big restructuring and a series of reform measures. Since 2001, Canon have kept five years continuously increasing records in terms of both sales and profit, which also brought him twice the honors of "World Top 25 Managers" and "World best Managers" respectively. In 2004, again he was elected and listed No.10 as "World Most Respectable Leaders".

Canon China's Business

Canon began its Chinese business after the Open Door policy was affirmed as a fundamental national policy by the Chinese government. In 1979 Madam Deng Yingchao, the widow of Premier Zhou Enlai, asked for support in the rebuilding of Chinese precision engineering on her visit to the Canon Company. This resulted in the friendly 1980 visit to Beijing of Canon's president, Kaku Ryuzaburo, leading to preparatory investment in China by Canon.

At present, Canon has established 11 wholly owned capital enterprises and 3 joint venture enterprises in Dalian, Zhuhai and Suzhou. Canon (Suzhou), which was built in Suzhou new zone in 2001, is the largest factory of Canon globally with US$100 million investment. Today, Canon has invested US$690 million in China, listed among the top of Japanese companies and made great contribution to China's economy through technology transfer and foreign currency income. Canon now has 30,000 employees in China.

The Canon (China) Co. Ltd. was founded in Beijing in 1997. The company is responsible for the company's investment and all other businesses in China. Since China's entering WTO in 2002, Canon (China) decided to exert its sales right in China and moved its Asian marketing headquarters to Beijing. Now Canon's business in China has entered phase II of sales and services from phase I of production and investment. China, with its 1.3 billion populations and fast economic development, has demonstrated more business opportunities to Canon.

In addition to active economic activities, Canon has also undertaken activities to promote society, culture and sports in China. Since 1990, Canon and Dalian city have jointly held the "Canon Cup", an annual Japanese Lecture Competition. In May 1998, at the centennial ceremony of Peking University, Canon donated 5 million Yen to for founding a Canon Scholarship Fund. Besides being a leading sponsor of the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing and the 1993 East Asian Games in Shanghai, Canon has also started to sponsor China Baseball League games from 2003.

With kyosei philosophy, Canon will provide more products and better services for Chinese people, and contribute to China's economic development and social prosperity through investment, technology transfer and creating employment opportunities.

Editor: Donald