Nikon Corporation (Nikon, Nikon Corp.) TYO: 7731 is a Japanese company specializing in optics and imaging. Its products include cameras, binoculars, microscopes, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication. It was founded in 1917 as Nihon (Nippon); the company was renamed Nikon Corporation after its cameras, in 1988. As of 2002, it has about 14,000 employees. Nikon is one of the Mitsubishi companies.

The name Nikon, which dates from 1946, is a merging of Nippon Kōgaku ("Japan Optical") and an imitation of Zeiss Ikon.

Among its famous products are Nikkor camera lenses (notably those designed for the company's own F-mount SLR cameras), Nikonos underwater cameras, the Nikon F-series of professional 135 film SLR cameras, and the Nikon D-series digital SLRs. Nikon has helped lead the transition to digital photography with both the Coolpix line of consumer and prosumer cameras as well as system cameras like the Nikon D100, the more recent Nikon D200, D70, D70s and the D50, and professional DSLRs including the D1 and D2 series (see below).

Nikon's main competitors include Canon, Leica, Pentax, and Olympus.

Nikon Corporation was established in 1917 when two leading optical manufacturers merged to form a comprehensive, fully integrated optical company known as Nippon Kogaku K.K. Over the next 60 years this growing company became a leading manufacturer of optical lenses and precision equipment used in cameras, binoculars, microscopes and inspection equipment. During World War II the company grew to 19 factories and 23,000 employees, supplying items such as binoculars, lenses, bomb sights and periscopes to the Japanese military. After the war it reverted to its civilian product range with a single factory and 1400 employees. By 1980, the first stepper, the NSR-1010G, was produced in Japan. Since then, Nikon has introduced over 50 models of stepper/scanners for the production of semiconductors and liquid crystal displays.

In 1982, Nikon Precision Inc. was established in the United States to sell and service Nikon stepper equipment. Fueled by a rapidly growing customer base, the company quickly expanded. In 1990, NPI opened its current Belmont, California headquarters. The facility now includes corporate offices, a fully equipped training center, and extensive applications, technology, service, sales and marketing departments.

In January 2006, Nikon announced that it would stop making most of its film camera models and all of its large format lenses, and focus on digital models.