Several Japanese manufacturers of photographic equipment with factories located in areas affected by the earthquake and Tsunami on 11 March have issued statements detailing the effects of the disaster on their operations.

 

March 15, 2011: Several Japanese manufacturers of photographic equipment with factories located in areas affected by the earthquake and Tsunami on 11 March have issued statements detailing the effects of the disaster on their operations.

Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Seiko Epson, Sigma and Sony are among the companies with factories that are likely to be affected by Friday’s earthquake and tsunami. Canon has issued a statement saying the Canon Inc headquarters and the Canon Group Subsidiary locations in Japan did not suffer major damage to any buildings or factories, although approximately 12 employees at Canon’s Utsunomiya factory suffered minor injuries and in some Canon manufacturing sites production was suspended as a result of power failures.

Fujifilm has confirmed that its Taiwa-Cho factory, 32 kilometres from Sendai city, has been affected, although no staff are reported as injured. damage to the factory building has caused a temporary halt in production of the FinePix X100, which is made at this plant. Nikon’s Sendai factory, which manufactures the company’s flagship DSLRs has suffered damage to some part of the equipment and buildings and production has been temporarily suspended. Some employees have been injured. A company statement can be found at: http://nikon.com/about/news/2011/0314_01.htm
Olympus has confirmed that the earthquake has not affected its production lines.
A few employees at Panasonic’s Lumix camera factory in Fukushima have been injured, according to a company statement. Several employees at its three factories in Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures sustained minor injuries. The company is currently assessing the impact on the business operations. Pentax has yet to issue a statement but recent reports suggest their factories have not suffered major damage.
According to the Bloomberg news agency, Sony said in a statement Monday that while only its Sendai Technology Center sustained earthquake damage, it has halted production and evacuated six factories in north-eastern Japan involved in manufacturing Blu-ray discs, magnetic heads and batteries. The company is assessing the impact of power outages and damage to its facilities in the region.
Seiko Epson has reported no casualties ‘at this stage’ but has suspended operations at four facilities. Epson Atmix Corporation (Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture) was hit by a one metre tsunami, while Epson Toyocom Corporation Fukushima Plant has suspended operationstemporarily as the plant is within the evacuation area associated with the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station. Damage to other facilities has been ‘minimal’ but production has been suspended because of power cuts caused by the earthquake.

Thom Hogan (www.bythom.com) reports the Sigma COO has tweeted there was damage to machines and facilities at the company’s Fukushima Aizu factory, but no injuries or casualties. Production is expected to re-start within a week. Hogan also has a detailed report on the current status of Nikon’s Sendai operations plus links to Google Maps and satellite views of the affectes area.