Canon Inc. (Japanese: キヤノン株式会社; Hepburn: Kyanon kabushiki gaisha) is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, specializing in optical, imaging, and industrial products, such as lenses, cameras, medical equipment, scanners, printers, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

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.

The company was originally named Seikikōgaku kenkyūsho (Japanese: 精機光学研究所, lit. 'Precision Optical Laboratory'). 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 Kannon (Japanese: 観音, lit. 'Guanyin'), previously transliterated as Kuanyin, Kwannon, or Kwanon in English.^{[citation needed]}

The origins of Canon date back to the founding of Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory in Japan in 1933 by Takeshi Mitarai, Goro Yoshida [jp], Saburo Uchida [jp] and Takeo Maeda [jp]. It became the company Precision Optical Instruments, Co., Ltd. in 1937. 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).

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. 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 Canonflex.

In 1961, Canon introduced the Rangefinder camera, Canon 7, and 50mm 1:0.95 lens in a special bayonet mount. In 1964, Canon introduced the 'Canola 130', the first Japanese made 10-key calculator, a substantial improvement on the design of the British Bell Punch company, which introduced the first fully electronic calculator two years earlier with the Sumlock Anita Mark 8 unit. In 1965, Canon introduced the Canon Pellix, a single lens reflex (SLR) camera with a semi-transparent stationary mirror which enabled the taking of pictures through the mirror.

In 1971, Canon introduced the Canon F-1, a high-end SLR camera, and the FD lens range. In 1976, Canon launched the Canon AE-1, the world's first camera with an embedded micro-computer.

Canon introduced their Inkjet printer using bubble-jet technology in 1985, one year after Hewlett-Packard. In 1987, Canon introduced their Canon Electro-Optical System (EOS), named after the goddess of the dawn, along with the Canon EOS 650 autofocus SLR camera. Also in 1987, the Canon Foundation was established. In 1988, Canon introduced 'Kyosei philosophy'. The EOS 1 Flagship Professional SLR line was launched in 1989. In the same year the EOS RT, the world's first AF SLR with a fixed, semi-transparent pellicle mirror, was unveiled.