The top three camera makers in Japan have shifted – but a new report is hinting why. Earlier this year, a tally of the top camera makers in Japan showed that Fujifilm had pushed Nikon out of the top three in a major industry shakeup. But a new report reveals that, when it comes to mirrorless cameras, Nikon still sits in the top three.
The new data from Toyo Keizai Inc. takes a different approach than the Nikkei report that first hinted that Fujifilm is now one of the top three camera makers in Japan. The new report shows different numbers for one key reason: The report breaks down the cameras by category.
Comparing the two industry reports reveals that, while Fujifilm has risen up the ranks to spot three, narrowing down the list to just mirrorless cameras doesn’t have the same shakeup. Looking at the number of mirrorless cameras shipped, Canon, Sony, and Nikon are still leading the list.
According to the mirrorless camera report, Canon led with 2.3 million mirrorless cameras, followed by Sony with 1.8 million, Nikon with 860,000, Fujifilm with 750,000, Panasonic at 270,000, and OM System at 120,000.
The two contrasting reports suggest that it’s Fujifilm’s compact cameras like the X100VI and X Half that have pushed the brand into the top three, as when considering just the mirrorless cameras, Fujifilm still sits in fourth.
But while Fujifilm needs the sales of the viral X100VI in order to overtake the longstanding Nikon, the data also reveals just how much growth the company has had in the past two years for mirrorless alone. From 2023 to 2025, Fujifilm has almost doubled the number of mirrorless cameras shipped, moving from 380,000 to 750,000.
Based on the numbers in the overall report, that leaves Fujifilm with a whopping 410,000 compact cameras shipped in 2025 – though that number could include Instax as well as popular models like the X100VI.
Canon still leads even when doing a bit of math to see how many compact cameras were shipped last year. With 4.5 million cameras sold, 2.05 million of those were mirrorless cameras, and 580,000 were DSLRs. That suggests that Canon sold around 1.87 million cameras that didn’t fall into either interchangeable lens category.
Sony sold 2.42 million cameras, according to the report, with 1.8 million of those as mirrorless, leaving around 620,000 fixed lens cameras.
Breaking down the camera shipments by category also shows just how small the DSLR numbers are. Canon shipped around 580,000 DSLRs and Nikon 60,000. While the shrinking DSLR market is expected as brands focus remains on mirrorless, Canon’s DSLR numbers still remain above half a million.
Pentax, the camera brand that remains committed to DSLRs over mirrorless, shipped just 10,000 DSLRs, according to the report.
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