"Olympus's key production facility, the Tatsuno Plant, is located in Kami-Ina in Nagano Prefecture where it has a commanding view of the South Japanese Alpine Mountains to the east and looks up to the Central Japanese Alpine Mountains in the west. Blessed with clean air and water and surrounded by natural splendor, this is one of Japan's most beautiful locations.
"Besides its beauty, this area has long been associated with the precision engineering industry.
"The Tatsuno Plant was established in 1981 as a center for the development and production of the OM Series of interchangeable-lens film SLR cameras, integrating the functions of two plants in nearby districts - the Suwa Plant, which had handled production of camera bodies and the Ina Plant, which had been responsible for lens production," explained Mr. Shigeru Mizumoto, who is responsible for improving lens capabilities.
"This plant was not created simply as a facility for integrated production," continued Mizumoto, as if yearning for old times. "It was also intended to be a kind of engineering utopia where the passion and skill of engineers from the two original plants could be deployed in synergy."