Be Wary of Optical Technology Leakage to China - Incompetent Management Causes Security Crisis

2020.03.07 06:00

My favorite hotel in Manhattan, New York, is The Pierre New York, located on the east side of Central Park. It is now owned by Taj Hotels, a subsidiary of the Tata Group of India. Even though it is a hotel in the big city of Manhattan, the room windows overlook the lush greenery of Central Park.

When I go to an unfamiliar country, I often choose a Japanese-affiliated hotel if there is one available, but in other countries, I try not to choose a place where many Japanese people gather. Even when I go to foreign countries, some people are still solidly Japanese only. However, I try to choose non-Japanese hotels in places I am familiar with, because I can discover new perspectives if I have more opportunities to interact with foreigners.

The Kitano Hotel New York is probably the most famous Japanese-affiliated hotel in Manhattan. It is run by a group company of Kitano Construction Co. I had been thinking about staying in a hotel with a large Japanese population in a place like Manhattan, but I decided to give it a try and stayed there in 2010.

After checking in at the front desk of the hotel, I waited in the elevator hall for the doors to open. The elevator came down to the lobby floor and the doors opened. Out of the elevator came Mr. Fujio Mitarai, Chairman of the Board of Canon Inc. It was a few months after Mr. Mitarai stepped down as chairman of Nippon Keidanren.

In the 1990s, Canon boasted of its overwhelming technological prowess, outstripping other companies' cameras with the advanced technology developed during the presidency of Hajime Mitarai (who passed away in 1995), a technophile. However, a short time after Fujio, who did not understand technology, became president after Hajime, the gap between Canon and other companies' cameras gradually began to narrow.

Shockingly, the Nikon D3 SLR launched in 2007 by Nikon, a technological laggard, completely outperformed Canon's then flagship SLR in terms of performance. Canon finally caught up with Nikon when the EOS-1D X was released in 2012.

It was more than a year before the EOS-1D X was released that I crossed paths with Mr. Fujio at close range in the elevator hall of The Kitano Hotel New York, and I was struck by the constraints of using the small-diameter Nikon F mount, which debuted in 1959, and which had long been unable to match the performance of Canon. It was unthinkable during the time of President Hajime that Nikon, which had long been unable to beat Canon in performance due to the limitations of using the small-diameter Nikon F mount that debuted in 1959, would overtake Nikon in technical capabilities.

Had I known that Mr. Fujio would appear before me, I could have complained on behalf of EOS users since 1987, but it was so sudden that I had no time to express my complaint. Mr. Fujio went down to the lobby floor and went off somewhere with some people (all of them seemed to be Japanese) who seemed to be from Canon.

I had expected that the Japanese-American hotel in Manhattan would be full of hicks like a group of "obori-nobori-san" from the "Agricultural Cooperative Tour," so it was a shock to encounter a man who until a few months ago was the chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren). Can Mr. Fujio Mitarai, who is solidly Japanese only, even in New York, be considered an international person?

I wrote in this article that many of the highly motivated Canon employees had already left the company, leaving only the tea-baggers, fed up with the many bad business decisions made by Mr. Fujio Mitarai, who had clung to power for years. On November 22 of last year, the Diet passed and enacted a bill to amend the Foreign Exchange Law. It is expected to go into effect this spring, but this law will not stop even the outflow of human resources to foreign companies.

The Japanese subsidiary of China's DJI, the largest drone manufacturer, is located near the Konan exit of Shinagawa Station. Already, people who retired from Nikon have moved to DJI's Japanese subsidiary. The optical equipment industry in Japan includes companies like Nikon, which was established for the purpose of domestic production of optical weapons.

I myself am not an expert in optical weapons. However, it is an irrefutable fact that Canon and Nikon are capable of producing world-class super-telephoto lenses. What would happen if such technology were to be transferred to China? The capabilities of the weapons of the Chinese People's Liberation Army would be greatly improved.

Since both Nikon and Canon are seen to be on the verge of extinction, they may be effectively acquired by companies that have the breath of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (through some scheme to circumvent the restrictions of the Foreign Exchange Law), or technicians who have given up on Canon and Nikon may be forced to leave the Chinese optical equipment-related companies (naturally and may have close ties to the Chinese People's Liberation Army) in droves.

If they cannot manage their companies with the speed of Sony, which can survive in the smartphone world, then both the salaried managers at Nikon and Fujio Mitarai, the Naked King, are a serious threat to Japan's national security.

Turning to the automobile industry, I have firsthand confirmation that there are skilled engineers who have given up on Honda and turnedto an ethnic Chinese automobile company when President Takanobu Ito was engaged in a reckless expansion strategy. Such a situation may not necessarily happen in the world of optics. 

If this were to happen, it would not only result in a downturn or bankruptcy of Canon and Nikon optical equipment makers, but it would likely threaten the independence and security of Japan. Shareholders who allow the reappointment of the incompetent managers who brought about such a situation are indirectlya threat to Japan's national security. What would we call such shareholders if we did not call them "national pirates"?

Canon's Articles of Incorporation stipulate that the term of office for directors is one year, and a general meeting of shareholders will be held on March 27 at Canon's headquarters. The second item on the agenda is the reappointment of six directors, including Fujio Mitarai. Canon shareholders are urged not to approve their reappointment lightly.

first appearance : AGORA