14 DAY TRIAL // It really seems that Canon will be one of the companies seriously affected by the tragic events that have occurred (and are still occurring) on the northeastern coast of Japan, but that's not stopped them from taking quite a few steps in order to ensure the fact that things will get back to normal as soon as possible.
But before moving to the actual operation and economic measures, we'll have to mention that Canon also got directly involved in the relief efforts, making a very generous donation to the Japanese Red Cross and some other humanitarian organizations, amounting to around 300 million Japanese Yen (or roughly 3.67-million US dollars).
As far as the actual effects the earthquake on Canon's various facilities across north-eastern Japan, things are not yet very clear, the company carrying out a full assessment process as we speak, in order to be able to figure out which plants have been the most affected, and whether their operations can be temporarily transferred to production sites not affected by either the Earthquake or the tsunami.
However, there's also some good news, namely the fact that Canon plants and Group companies in the western half of Honshu have resumed normal operation yesterday (Monday, March 14), while the company is still carrying out assessments to see whether production in all of these locations has been affected in any way or not.
Similar to some of the other manufacturers in Japan, Canon has responded in a very positive manner to the Japanese government's requests for power conservation, not only implementing some measures of its own, but also urging all of its employees to save power in their own homes as well.
All in all, all we can say is that we really hope that Canon will manage to get through this very bad period with a minimum loss, although it's quite clear that the 2011 revenues will be quite seriously affected by this disaster.