Access Japan 2018, Special Issue Published by The Cannata Report, Outlines Future Trends in Business Technology Industry

Hamburg, N.J. – With the Japanese Big Six manufacturers—Konica Minolta, Canon, Ricoh, Toshiba TEC, Sharp, and Kyocera—focused on creating solutions to improve office and workflow efficiency, The Cannata Report provides intelligence on a number of associated future trends in the business technology industry in Access Japan 2018, a special summer 2018 bonus issue sponsored exclusively by GreatAmerica Financial Services.

In meetings with leading executives at the Japanese Big Six conducted in Japan in May of 2018, The Cannata Report’s editorial team confirmed that each manufacturer recognizes the business of traditional document printing is contracting and each is innovating aggressively to compensate for that decline. Access Japan 2018reports that two priorities of the manufacturers’ are to develop and scale 1) the “smart office” and office output efficiency, and 2) production/high-end print capabilities.

Additional trends identified by The Cannata Report’s Access Japan 2018 include:

• Emphasis on R&D will be with inkjet technology as opposed to conventional toner. While the current emphasis on inkjet is in wide and large format, that technology will be moved downstream to provide highly competitive products to be employed in the office.
• The manufacturers recognize MFP needs to evolve in a major way to remain relevant. Each is working to develop technologies to make their MFP products more efficient and productive and to further differentiate their products from competitors.
• Most of the manufacturers are planning to leverage data through the MFP and other smart devices to improve business processes.
• The emphasis on big data and IT-related services and connectivity was notable.
• All manufacturers interviewed are looking to firmly establish themselves in the top three in market share.

Access Japan 2018 reports on meetings with top global industry executives including, Shoei Yamana, president and CEO, Konica Minolta, Inc.; Yoshinori Ikeda, advisory director, deputy chief executive, Office Imaging Products Operations, Canon, Inc.; Hede Nonaka, corporate SVP and GM, Visual Communication Business Group, Ricoh; Sachio Koyama, vice president, general manager of products, marketing & service division, Toshiba TEC Corporation; Fujikazu Nakayama, senior executive managing officer – president & CEO, Sharp Marketing Japan Corporation; and Norihiko Ina, president, Kyocera Document Solutions Corporation.