Canon CEO Very Dismayed by Brexit, Could Halt Japan Recovery

[YuengLinger]

Canon makes more than lens caps outside of Japan.

http://www.canon-asia.com/personal/web/company/about

Fujio Mitarai might simply have been saying what he thought his upset EU friends wanted to hear. Some see such statements as politeness in a time of stress.

 

[IglooEater]

I remember Richard Branson being quite brutal about companies moaning about currency variations. His point was that businesses should work to be neutral to currancy movements by endeavoring to buy and sell roughly equal amounts of goods and services in each currancy. No one is capable of achieving exact parity, but his point was that there are plenty of companies that rely on a particular currency disparity to survive and if that vanishes then they are doomed.

So canon is now officially doomed. I think that's the first time we've heard that around here... ;P

No one is suggesting that. However, it's much easier for Branson to preach that sort of thing given how diverse his holdings are and the fact that he's more of a reseller of goods and services than a manufacturer. Might be a bit tougher for a specialty manufacturer like Canon or Nikon to follow that advice, since it isn't as though they can just secure their components from the local hardware store.

Actually a lot of people are suggesting that, (though not because of brexit) and I inserted that to laugh at them. Sorry, I was just getting a bit silly there, I do agree with you though.

 

[Ozarker]

[rant]

Wonder what he'll say when Emperor Trump is elected, he pulls the 'trade war' lever and the US starts building all its electronics domestically like he promised. :-[

Sorry, I know this is a (blissfully) politics-free place, but I'm @#$%ing terrified that the Brexit is a harbinger of a DT presidency. Like move-to-Canada terrified.

[/rant]

- A

As someone who has lived in Canada, it's not as green-grassed as many seem to think. Plenty of their own problems socially and politically.

On topic
I sure hope the slow economic recovery doesn't cause any additional exits from the camera market, like Samsung.

Of course, The United States gvt. doesn't manufacture consumer electronics. Chine nor Japan will never pay for the tariffs on their products being imported into the U.S. The American consumer will absorb all those costs. All of those costs.

Pulling the trade war lever with China would be economic suicide. There would be no products on our shelves and there are no mothballed flat screen television factories just waiting to be turned on.

Some will say that will be China's suicide too. Not so. China couldn't care less about a starving population. They'll simply hold the products until we've learned out lesson.

 

[unfocused]

I remember Richard Branson being quite brutal...and if that vanishes then they are doomed.

So canon is now officially doomed. I think that's the first time we've heard that around here... ;P

No one is suggesting that...

Actually a lot of people are suggesting that, (though not because of brexit) and I inserted that to laugh at them. Sorry, I was just getting a bit silly there, I do agree with you though.

Actually, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pick on you and your comment, which I knew was in jest.

 

[unfocused]

If either the Pound or Euro (or both) take a nosedive and stay down, not only will it be more difficult to sell in those countries due to the unfavorable exchange rate, it will become likely that there will be a push to move some production there due to the (now) lower costs, and the marketing advantage local production provides...

...If they became cost competitive, it would make good business sense to make things there. So how does he handle that?...

...Worst of all, they (the UK and Europe) will also become competitors (again)...

...That's probably what really has him worried. Japan hasn't had a competitor in the camera arena in decades. That may change here soon.

That all seems unlikely. The Euro and Pound have taken a hit because of panic by investors, not because of underlying permanent weaknesses. Given the time and investment required for new manufacturing facilities, I doubt if Canon would risk sinking that kind of money into facilities when any exchange rate advantage could evaporate at any time. Likewise, I don't see competitors rising up to take on the Japanese market due to the same transitory nature of the current economic fallout, particularly because the DSLR market is shrinking anyway.

 

[neonlight]

Now the pound has dropped and the yen might go up, I'm going to have to save longer for my next lens!

 

[Ladislav]

This vote went the way it did because we the people have been largely ignored for a long time by an elite who "knows better".

We were fed lines like "UK will be at the back of the queue for USA trade deal if we leave".

But we don't have a UK-US trade deal, yet we manage to trade very well thank you, as for TTIP I'm very glad we're out.

The EU has become something quite unlike what we entered into in 1973, then it was a trading bloc and on the whole worked relatively well. It has become a red tape machine that damages UK industry, allows (for instance) Spanish factory fishing ships to fish our waters yet insists we break up what little's left of the once substantial UK fishing fleet. It's rules and regulations dictate in favour of big business, yet the UK has a backbone of small business. For instance after the banking failure and resultant unemployment we had an MP on R4 saying if every one man business could take on just one person that we'd have zero unemployment.. the R4 presenter was totally speechless as he could only think of big business. This is part of the problem, the BBC and the rest of the press has lived inside their little "westminster bubble" for so long they have lost any connection with much of the country, so they simply can't comprehend what's happened.

Additionally it is clear the EU wants to change Europe into a "United States of Europe" with them in charge, telling everyone how to do everything... all very soviet.

There is the huge issue of immigration.. now before I go any further here's some details to give our American cousins an idea of what England's like: Population density: imagine taking all the people in california + Taxas and cramming them into michigan without first removing the population of michigan. Now add 300,000 more people from outside every year whilst at the same time having the smallest housing in europe (just over a third the average size of US homes, even the Japanese have bigger homes) and then not building anything close to the volume of housing needed. Today if you're under 40 and live in your own house with or without a mortgage then you are rare and very very lucky. The rate of immigration also depresses wages, so areas with higher than average levels of immigration can see wages depressed by as much as 30 or 40%, which is generally loved by big business but hated by those on the wrong end of the immigration. The people comming are on the whole decent hard working and so on, but when they decide to come to your town in the 10s of thousands and swamp the local population who has lived there for generations it was always going to end badly. Why all this migration?.. because the EU has failed, unemployment is rocketing 50% unemployment for the young in southern EU states, it's a catastrophy, the UK being non-Euro and generally more favourable to small businesses hasn't been dragged into the mire.

Now none of the above means we don't want to trade with the rest of Europe, just we do not want to be ruled by Europe. In fact what we want is to be free to trade with the whole world rather than focussing on a backward looking Nanny knows best stangnant EU.

Which brings us back to Japan.. We want to trade with you.. we REALLY want to trade with you, we want you to come here on holiday or to do business, we love your cameras and will carry on buying loads of them. So please don't panic.

Time to join political discussion - sorry folks but I can't help myself.

@rfdesigner - respect. Very well written post and probably a type of information people were supposed to get from both camps.


I'm EU citizen (Czech) living in UK for past 3 years. I came to UK because US technology company offered me a job here so I simply decided to have a bit of adventure with no risks as it was within EU and still close to home. I never considered this a permanent relocation. It is just a new experience and than I will move back.

I don't claim any benefits, I'm even not eligible. I don't have children yet so I don't put pressure on local schools. When I or my wife need health care treatment and it is not urgent we actually travel back to Czech republic (always for dentist) as British healthcare totally failed our expectations. IMHO NHS stands most probably for No Healthcare System. On the other hand I give tens of thousands pounds per year on my taxes to British treasury.

A lot of what I heard during campaign was offensive to people like me. Before the campaign I felt like foreigner working in another EU country but after what was said in past few months I sometimes feel like and unwanted immigrant (in the worst meaning) and burden for UK economy.

I'm caught of guard by the Brexit vote result. Not because I don't respect the result, democracy or British people or because I'm very fond of EU but because I don't like uncertainty. Right now I feel a lot of uncertainty in my life and the uncertainty is not related only to my stay in UK but also to the future of EU affecting Czech republic as well. Any business in general feels this uncertainty - that is why Canon CEO said that.


Let me ask you a question:

A lot was said about influx of EU citizens coming to UK but when the real number are put on the table, is it really so bad?
- UK population: 65M
- EU citizens: 3.3M
- UK expats in EU: 1.2M

That makes net influx of EU people to UK 2.1M - some 3.2% of the population. Consider all the claims of the EU immigration impact on social and health system, schools, housing and even transport. Now tell me - do you really think that 3% increase in population (slowly growing over many years) is really what put the pressure on all public services? Isn't this just hiding incompetency of many people in charge behind an external factor which is easy to blame?

Off course there is a question about how to slow down the influx of EU people to already overcrowded country but what about non-EU migrants? Why is EU migration blamed so much when UK government is not able to control even non-EU migration where they have all the tools available?

I'm also pretty interested how will Brexiters work on all those trade deals they promised. A simple example:
A lot was said about pursuing trade deal with China which would benefit British economy. I know nothing about trade deals but it seems to me that in discussion of such a deal China would be superior to make demands before it even happens. In my opinion free trade with China would make issues with cheap China's steel crushing British steel industry (Port Talbot) look really minor.

Anyway it will be very interesting to see how this ends up and what deal will Britons get at the end - mean how far it will be from what was promised during populist campaign. I made few friends here and I wish you guys all the best in this leap of faith.

 

[greger]

Brexit is a topic that most people are interested in. For someone to complain about a forum post started by the administrator is funny to me. Being not fully informed about a subject may have contributed to an exit vote by the people of Britain. How can they have a revote because people think they made a mistake? How this plays out is of great interest to me.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Gregor.
Reference re vote or not, I don't know.
What I do know is when you hear an interview on the radio where the interviewee says something like 'I was going to vote but it was such a lovely day I went to the beach instead thinking it would all be alright' it shows the level of intellect and the importance attached to probably the most important vote since voting to join the EEC (European Economic Comunity).
Regarding Europe, when it was the EEC, it was a good thing, if this is what we still had I believe we wouldn't have even wanted a Referendum on in or out, the problems started when it started working towards the United States of Europe too much control by over paid out of touch idiots bureaucrats.
Some will say it just evolved that way, I ask if it needed to evolve beyond its original purpose, or if it was because people could claim a salary and horrendous expenses and a title.
An opinion and we know what that is worth!

Cheers, Graham.

Brexit is a topic that most people are interested in. For someone to complain about a forum post started by the administrator is funny to me. Being not fully informed about a subject may have contributed to an exit vote by the people of Britain. How can they have a revote because people think they made a mistake? How this plays out is of great interest to me.

 

[Ozarker]

Hi Gregor.
Reference re vote or not, I don't know.
What I do know is when you hear an interview on the radio where the interviewee says something like 'I was going to vote but it was such a lovely day I went to the beach instead thinking it would all be alright' it shows the level of intellect and the importance attached to probably the most important vote since voting to join the EEC (European Economic Comunity).
Regarding Europe, when it was the EEC, it was a good thing, if this is what we still had I believe we wouldn't have even wanted a Referendum on in or out, the problems started when it started working towards the United States of Europe too much control by over paid out of touch idiots bureaucrats.
Some will say it just evolved that way, I ask if it needed to evolve beyond its original purpose, or if it was because people could claim a salary and horrendous expenses and a title.
An opinion and we know what that is worth!

Cheers, Graham.

Brexit is a topic that most people are interested in. For someone to complain about a forum post started by the administrator is funny to me. Being not fully informed about a subject may have contributed to an exit vote by the people of Britain. How can they have a revote because people think they made a mistake? How this plays out is of great interest to me.

It always seems that the "best intentioned" ideas by the government elite turn out to be a way of incrementally tightening the noose of control over the unwashed masses.
Now it seems every single time I go to the doctor I'm asked, "Do you smoke?" "No" "Not ever in your life?" "No." "Not even one cigarette?" "NO!"

"Do you drink alcohol?" "No." "Not ever?" "Well, I had 5 beers when I was in the Army 30 years ago." Doctor says, " Okay, past social drinker." "No! I tried beer and didn't like it, so never drank again."

Now every doc has a record od this and is able to get a list of my medications from the pharmacies.

I don't trust government with so much personal information. I don't trust huge bureaucracies like the EU, UN, or the US government at all.

Hooray for Brexit!

Bureaucrats have no business prying into our personal lives. Leave us alone to be free.

The "programs" are never what they are cracked up to be. If one cannot afford the service and don't pay into it... you can gain access to the service. If one can afford the service and actually pays into it... access is denied.

 

[Kristofgss]

I don't trust government with so much personal information. I don't trust huge bureaucracies like the EU, UN, or the US government at all.

When cellphones came out people were paranoid about the governement being able to track their location. 20 years later you expect your iphone to show you where you are and how traffic is going on your way home, you get a gps in your camera to do location tagging, google targets the ads to your surfing habits, every retail store keeps track of what you buy with a card you get for discounts and (at least where i live) automatic license plate readers check every vehicle coming in and out of the city. Leaving the EU is not going to make big data disappear.

Though on a very sellfish note, I really really hope that we're not going to start having customs inspections and import tariffs on goods bought from the UK again. That used to be such a pain in the xxx when you bought something from there in the distant past. Now, I buy whatever I can't find locally from there and have it delivered a few days later to my doorstep.

I do wonder what the long-term effect will be though. Will they be getting new trade agreements so basically everything stays the same economically as it is now (they always kept their own currency, which makes for some very cheap deals today on amazon ;D), but with more restrictions on immigration and make their own policies and rules? And on the other hand, one thing which I still havent figured out as EU citizen is what they expect to change now. They already drove on the other side of the road, they kept their own currency, they still use imperial units for height, speed and liquids, they have their own standard of wall outlets. I can't imagine why you want to have even less common standards.

 

[slclick]

I really hope this doesn't affect R&D on the new EF-S 18-55 2.8-4.5 IS STM Mk4

 

[scyrene]

Incredibly good move for Britain.

+1

It won't change whether or not people want to buy a Canon camera.

Agreed - the current exchange rate fluctuations are just short term currency speculation - because the outcome was known to be a likely outcome.

Also agreed - this is an off topic thread for this non-political forum and the initial post and entire thread should be removed due to its political nature.

The outcome was not known at all. That this is political and essentially outside this forum's remit, I agree.

 

[Loswr]

Also agreed - this is an off topic thread for this non-political forum and the initial post and entire thread should be removed due to its political nature.

... That this is political and essentially outside this forum's remit, I agree.

Forum name: "Canon Rumors"

Topic title: "Canon CEO Very Dismayed by Brexit, Could Halt Japan Recovery"

Seems quite topical to me.

 

[AvTvM]

Well this is what happens when you don't supply a printed manual with your flagship camera in the UK and charge £5200 for the privilage.

On a more serious note, what's all the bloody panic? It's only a shock if you haven't been following European politics. The notion that the world will fall apart just because one nation doesn't want to be part of a club? :

There will still be trade on a global scale, there will still be money sloshing from nation to nation. The UK will still buy French cheese/wine, German cars, Japanese electronics, Italian guacamole....

Keep calm and carry a camera.

+100 !

CEO of stupid Canon company should rather focus on offering products that are fully competitive and offer good price/value. Hot air just won't cut it ... that is politician's terrain.

 

[Ozarker]

Well this is what happens when you don't supply a printed manual with your flagship camera in the UK and charge £5200 for the privilage.

On a more serious note, what's all the bloody panic? It's only a shock if you haven't been following European politics. The notion that the world will fall apart just because one nation doesn't want to be part of a club? :

There will still be trade on a global scale, there will still be money sloshing from nation to nation. The UK will still buy French cheese/wine, German cars, Japanese electronics, Italian guacamole....

Keep calm and carry a camera.

+100 !

CEO of stupid Canon company should rather focus on offering products that are fully competitive and offer good price/value. Hot air just won't cut it ... that is politician's terrain.

Poor AvTvM: The only person I've seen on a board who could be given $1,000,000,000 and then complain about the paper cut he just gave himself... or the stupid Bureau of Engraving slapping out $100 bills.

 

[Ozarker]

I don't trust government with so much personal information. I don't trust huge bureaucracies like the EU, UN, or the US government at all.

When cellphones came out people were paranoid about the governement being able to track their location.

True, and I still am.

20 years later you expect your iphone to show you where you are and how traffic is going on your way home, you get a gps in your camera to do location tagging, google targets the ads to your surfing habits, every retail store keeps track of what you buy with a card you get for discounts and (at least where i live) automatic license plate readers check every vehicle coming in and out of the city.

I don't expect or want any of that. I don't want a smartphone with gps or wifi, neither do I want a camera with those features.

Leaving the EU is not going to make big data disappear.

You are right about that 100%

I can't imagine why you want to have even less common standards.

By "you" I hope you don't mean me. I live in the United States.

I'd rather see the UK (Except Scotland) unite as a brother on even keel with the United States. Let's let bygones be bygones and become brothers once again. Free trade all around and no VAT!

Besides, it would be such fun to experience a British waiter ask my Tennessee Hillbilly wife if she'd like the Spotted dick for dessert. The expression on her face would be priceless.

(Legitimate British desert!!!! Don't ban me until it is properly googled! Just ask King Ralph!)

 

[AvTvM]

...
Poor AvTvM: The only person I've seen on a board who could be given $1,000,000,000 and then complain about the paper cut he just gave himself... or the stupid Bureau of Engraving slapping out $100 bills.

The way things are going, I might be complaining if I were offered 1 Million Pounds instead of 1 Million Euros ...

 

[rcarca]

The simple fact of the matter is that Brexit will reverb around the world for years to come: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/post-brexit-world-risk-work-in-progress-richard-anderson?trk=pulse_spock-articles

Companies had better get their act together. Looks like Mr Canon understands that. Good for him!

 

[chauncey]

Perhaps Fujio Mitarai might first ask himself why did Brexit occur
The EU's open border policy, with associated terrorism, is what drove the Brits away.
Economics wasn't even in the equation. Japan's closed door immigration policy has kept it safe.