Canon is a Japanese multination corporation that is specialized in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, steppers and computer printers. It was founded in 1937. Its headquarters are located in ÅŒta, Tokyo, Japan. The company has more than 197,000 employees worldwide. 'Kwanon' was the original name when it was founded in 1937 by Takeshi Mitarai, Goro Yoshida, Saburo Uchida and Takeo Maeda. In 1934, Raigo Inaba and his team developed Japan's first 35mm focal-plane-shutter camera. In 1947 the company changed its name to Canon Camera Co., Inc and changed it again in 1969 to Canon Inc. The first digital camera prototype was developed by one of the company's engineers in 1975 and in 1987 Canon released their first digital still camera 'RC-701'