Canon’s policy of lifelong employment is based on
the management philosophy of Takeshi Mitarai,
the first president of the company. In 1943
during WW II, which was a year after he became awareness of their common destiny based on
lifelong employment.
Because researchers do not have to worry
about being let go even if they are unable to
achieve results in the short term, they can apply
themselves perseveringly to the development
of innovative technologies that can determine
the future of the company. The famous bubble
jet technique used in ink-jet printers is a unique
printing technique that heats tiny nozzles to
produce a jet of ink droplets. Canon’s engineers
spent five years to develop this technology. The
material for the nozzles was provided by the
optical fiber development team, which created
a hollow optical fiber 0.1mm in diameter. The
development of the heat source was helped by
another development team that was engaged in
the development of a small-sized heater used for
printing the calculator output to thermal paper.
Thus, several different development teams worked
together with a strong sense of a common bond
and an awareness of their common destiny. On
the basis of this tradition, Canon succeeded in the
development and manufacturing of its products. In
other words, Canon’s strength of the “employees’
awareness of their common destiny based on
lifelong employment” has been fully exercised in
its technological development.