Compact cameras leading the Japanese camera market in 2025

The BCN AWARD 2026 results were recently announced, revealing the trends in the Japanese digital camera market for 2025. Overall market sales increased by 114.8% year-on-year, achieving double-digit growth. Fixed-lens cameras (compact cameras) led the market with a 127.4% year-on-year increase. On the other hand, interchangeable-lens mirrorless cameras saw a 93.5% year-on-year increase, lower than the previous year. In particular, digital SLR cameras only grew by 45.6% year-on-year, shrinking to less than half of the previous year's figure.

The sales composition by category is: fixed-lens cameras 72.6%, mirrorless cameras 26.5%, and SLR cameras only 0.9%. Fixed-lens cameras account for over 70% of the market share. In the fixed-lens camera segment, Kodak won the award for the first time with a 24.0% share. The company's sales increased by a remarkable 144.6% year-on-year. Fujifilm ranked second with a 13.9% share, with the instax miniEVO accounting for approximately 60% of its sales. Kenko Tokina ranked third with a 13.3% share, only 0.6 percentage points behind Fujifilm. Its best-selling products are primarily the KC-AF11 series. Observing the best-selling product trends of Kodak and Kenko Tokina, products with basic performance and ease of daily use have contributed to their market share.

While there has been talk of a "compact camera boom" recently, data from BCN shows that fixed-lens cameras saw a year-on-year growth of 127.4%, a significant increase that confirms this trend. However, the main sales drivers are low-priced compact cameras from Kodak and Kenko, as well as models like Fujifilm's instax. While sales volume is considerable, the unit price seems relatively low. Furthermore, the interchangeable lens camera market appears somewhat sluggish in 2025, a point of concern.