Now the company's professional camera business takes the lead in China with a market share of 45 percent, while its digital cameras have about 30 percent of the market, ranking No 1.

"Because of the intense competition, the market share of Canon has slightly decreased since 2010, but the Chinese market will keep a steady growth rate in the next few years," said Huang Lei, senior analyst at CCID Consulting's Consumer Electronics Industry Research Center.

According to him, the market share for digital cameras decreased from 80 percent to 62 percent in the last three years, while professional camera sales increased to 22.5 percent in 2011 from 11 percent a year before.

"China has become the largest market for our latest high-end camera, the 5D Mark III, which was released in March, and inventories are almost sold out now," Ozawa said.

He said sales revenue of Canon China is expected to reach $10 billion by the end of 2016 with 30 percent year-on-year growth this year.

The market is expected to see a 10 percent annual growth rate in the next few years, Huang said.

However, Ozawa still isn't happy with the company's sales performance in China.

"Canon has been in China for so many years, but most customers only know the brand through its consumer electronics products," said Ozawa. "We have to strengthen the visibility of our office products."

"China surpassed Japan to become Canon's second-largest market two years ago, and I believe the country will become our largest market soon," he added.

According to him, Canon initially entered many overseas markets, such as the US and Europe, through its camera products. Once the brand's image was established, the company began to diversify its product line.

After buying Dutch printer maker Oce NV for $1 billion in 2010, "we launched a commercial campaign in 2010 to drum up sales in China's printer sector. That's why I brought Watanabe from Tokyo to Beijing", Ozawa said.

Watanabe joined Canon's printer business in 1977, when its home market of Japan was only familiar with the company's cameras but not its printers.

"I think most Chinese people still use black-and-white printers, but the era of color printing will be coming soon," said Watanabe. "Japan went through the same process decades ago."

China has about 10 million SOHO (small office, home office) companies, representing a huge market for office products such as printers, projectors and photocopiers.

Canon now holds about 41 percent of the market for ink-jet printers in China, putting it in the leading position for the first time since the last quarter of 2010, according to the US-based IT research company IDC.

Canon's printing business accounts for about 50 percent of its sales revenue in Japan, while the same division only holds a small percentage of the Chinese market.

"In the camera industry, Canon still has a good slot, but shifting to other industries may affect the company's performance in the camera market," Huang said.

"I want to bring up the printing business sector's percentage to at least 20 percent of our China sales revenue," Ozawa said.

tuoyannan@chinadaily.com.cn