Do we like them?

Do we like Nikon?

Japanese maker of cameras, lenses, chip-making lithography machines and microscopes, based in Tokyo.

Our score: 6 out of 10. A solid, long-running maker with real climate targets and no recent scandals in what we found. The big losses and the old Swiss cartel fine stop us rating it higher.

Nikon is one of Japan's best-known camera makers. It also sells chip-making equipment and microscopes. Its year to March 2026 was rough. One report put sales at about JPY 677bn, down from JPY 715bn a year earlier. Headlines gave different loss figures, so we won't quote one.

On pay, the search summary says executive bonuses and performance-linked stock pay for the top two executives were not paid for that year. That looks like leadership taking some of the hit.

On the legal side, we found old trouble. Its Swiss arm lost an appeal over a competition ruling, and Nikon paid a fine of about CHF 12 million. In the chip-machine patent fight with ASML and Zeiss, the two paid Nikon €150 million to settle in 2019.

On climate, Nikon's own reports describe an SBTi-certified target to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 71.4% from fiscal 2013 by fiscal 2030. It also has a longer-term carbon-neutral goal. We'd call that decent, but they are company claims.