Is Canon keeping manufacturing in Japan or moving away?

Are we talking about Chinese battery quality, which ranks among the best in the world, or their business ethics, which ranks about the worse.

Or if you really want to get off topic...did ya know that poor water quality kills more folks than does warfare. Stay on topic please.

My recent Canon 500D is made in Japan. The kit lens is Japanese as well. The battery is made in China, obviously. 55-250 Canon IS lens is made in Malaysia. I am thrilled as these are the first few things at my drawing room which are not made in China. From my TV to Wii from iPhone to my roller ball pen are are made in China. (Well..to be precise,......iPhone is 'designed in CA' and made in 'PRC'!!! Thanks Mr Jobs).

Companies will move to cheapest place, whatever, we think. If qualities fall, however, consumers are still clever enough to identify the lack of quality and discontinue the product.

440roadrunner wrote in post #9927396
Uhhhhhhhhh...........y​eah, there IS. When manufacturers in China see nothing wrong with adding harmful chemicals and materials to products there IS something inherently wrong. Also, China is one country (amoung others) that seems to have no ethical attachment to things like copyrights and patents laws.

Oh, theres plenty wrong with the way goods are made in china, and their lack of respect for copyright and intellectual property is frankly amazing, but I will stand by my statement, there is nothing inherently wrong with something just cause it was made in China. Some of of it is junk, some of it is deadly dangerous junk, but I can't say I have not been impressed by some of the stuff I have seen come from Chinese manufacturing, specifically some of the molded plastic parts and aluminum castings, and recently I have seen improvements in the quality of their measuring tools and machine tools. Not to the level of the Japanese Mori-Seki and Mitutoyo level yet, but better than what we used to laughingly call Hong Kong Willy junk tooling.
The Japanese are masters at creating cast precision parts, Shimano comes to mind. The Chinese are getting better, and with great gusto.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a product just cause it came from The PRC.

SkipD wrote in post #9925545
In the early to mid 1960s, Nikon's optical equipment surprised me. That was well made for sure. Pentax and Canon weren't far behind, but the Nikon F was built like a tank. My two Nikon F cameras, purchased in 1967, are still with me and are in great shape considering the age and heavy use I put them through.

Too true Skip.. In my opinion the Nikon F changed 35mm forever.. Here was a camera that was beautifully made, tough as teak and precision piece of equipment.. Combined with Nikkor optics they were a force to be reckoned with.. The founders of Leica, Contax et al would have been turning in their graves..

I still have a 1969 vintage F I bought second hand in 1975.. Barring the bumps, bruises and scrapes the old girl still works like new..