Japanese Camera Market Share: The Rise of Sony, The Decline of All Others and Fujifilm Saved by Instax

Camera Sales in Japan

BCNranking published the market shares changes between April 2018 to March 2019.

Sony sold less cameras but increased the sales value, meaning they are strong in the high end camera segment. All others brands are struggling.

And Fujifilm?

Well, don’t get fooled by the +19,4% increase in camera sales by Fujifilm. As BCN writes:

“Fujifilm’s sales were boosted by the strong sales of the digital version Cheki “instax SQUARE” series.”

So it’s once again Insax that keeps Fujifilm’s imaging division afloat. Just look at the top AmazonUS camera products ranking, and you will see tons of Instax products there.

I am afraid that, if we would get a separate report for Fujifilm’s digital imaging division, we would see rather negative figures also at Fujifilm.

Down below you can see Mirrorlessrumors’ summary of the chart:

Canon did hold 37.3% of the overall camera market shares (fixed lens plus system cameras)
Nikon did hold 26,7% of the overall camera market shares
Sony did hold 13,1% of the overall camera market shares
Olympus did hold 6% of the overall camera market shares
Fuji did hold 5.8% of the overall camera market shares

Compared to the previous year:

Canon sold -1,3% cameras (units of sales)
Nikon sold -15% cameras
Sony sold -6,6% cameras
Olympus sold -13,8% cameras
Fuji sold +19,4% cameras

But the story changes if you consider the overall value of the camera sales. Sonny mostly sells high-end cameras and that’s where you see their big leap forward:

Canon camera sales value dropped -11,4%
Nikon camera sales value dropped -28,5%
Sony camera sales value increased +14,5%
Olympus camera sales value dropped -21,3%
Fujifilm camera sales value increased +0,6%

via Mirrorlessrumors via Digicameinfo