The History of Canon
1962-1975
First five-year plan

[Enterprise] Canon develops its first five-year plan in preparation for full-fledged entry into the business machine market.

[Enterprise] Canon Latin America, the company's sole distributor for Latin America, is established in Panama.

[Enterprise] Canon SA Geneva is established. By abolishing the sole-distributor system, Canon moves to a new sales system, with outlets under the direct control of the headquarters in Tokyo.

[Products] Canon starts work on optical fiber development.

[Products] An X-ray mirror camera is introduced.

[Enterprise] Tamagawa factory (today, the Tamagawa Office) opens, producing 8 mm movie cameras and lenses.

[Products] The Canola 130, the world's first 10-key electronic calculator, is introduced.

[Enterprise] Canon U.S.A., Inc., is established.

[Products] Canon enters the copying machine field with the introduction of the Canofax 1000.

[Enterprise] The 30th anniversary slogan -"Cameras in the Right Hand, Business Machines in the Left"- is announced.

[Enterprise] The ratio of exports to net sales surpasses 50%.

[Enterprise] Canon Latin America, Inc., is established.

[Enterprise] Canon Business Machines Sales, Inc. (today, Canon Marketing Japan) is established in Japan.

[Enterprise] Canon Amsterdam N.V. (today, Canon Europa N.V.) is established.

[Products] The Canon NP System, the original electro-photography technology, is introduced and Canon enters the plain-paper copier (PPC) market.

[Products] Canon Electronics is successful in the mass production of four-track, four-channel stereo recording heads.

[Enterprise] The company's name is changed to Canon Inc.

[Enterprise] Canon Camera Sales Co., Inc., is founded for marketing in Japan.

[Enterprise] The Canon Research Center is established in Meguro, Tokyo.

[Enterprise] Fukushima Canon Inc. is established as a camera manufacturing plant.

[Products] The world's first lens employing fluorite is introduced.

[Enterprise] Canon Inc., Taiwan, Canon’s first manufacturing facility outside of Japan, is established.

[Enterprise] Canon enters the market for personal calculators.

[Products] The NP-1100, Japan’s first PPC, is introduced.

[Products] The PPC-1, Japan's first mask aligner, is introduced.

[Enterprise] Canon Business Machines Sales, Inc., and Canon Camera Sales Co., Ltd., merge to form Canon Sales Co., Inc.

[Products] The Canon F-1, a top-end SLR camera, and FD lenses are introduced.

[Products] The BP-1000 billing machine is introduced. Canon enters the field of office computers.

[Enterprise] Canon Giessen GmbH, Canon’s first European manufacturing site, is established in Germany.

[Products] The NP-70, the world's first PPC with the liquid-dry system, is introduced.

[Enterprise] Canon Deutschland GmbH is established.

[Products] Japan's first full-color PPC is introduced.

[Products] A macro zoom lens for cinematography wins an Academy Award in the science and technology category from the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

[Enterprise] Takeo Maeda is appointed president of Canon Inc.

[Enterprise] Canon Business Machines, Inc., is established in California, U.S.A.

[Enterprise] Optron, Inc. (today, Canon Optron, Inc.) is established.

[Products] The Canonac 100 and 500 office computers are introduced.

[Products] The Communicator, a portable "tape-writer" for the speech impaired, is announced.

[Products] Canon initiates sales of the Optacon, an electronic reader for the blind.

[Enterprise] Canon France S.A.S. is established.

[Products] Canon succeeds in developing a laser printer.