Canon Chairman and CEO Fujio Mitarai,
who is up every day at 4 a.m. reading online news. Later,
when the newspaper arrives, he switches to print. Then he
gets an early start at Canon’s head office in Tokyo, well
before other staff. That’s not a bad start to the day for this
veteran leader of a cutting-edge global imaging company.
Newspapers, while an old habit for Mitarai, are of interest
because Canon believes there is demand for new printing
solutions in regions such as the island of Okinawa in
southern Japan, where national newspapers are still flown
in from the main island of Honshu. Following its acquisition
of Dutch printer manufacturer Océ, Canon has identified a
range of potential markets for its digital production printing
systems, which are ideal for small-lot, commercial and
corporate in-house printing jobs.