Founded on July 25, 1917 as "Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha" (日本光学工業株式会社 "Japan Optical Industries Co., Ltd."), the company was renamed Nikon Corporation, after its cameras, in 1988.
Glavni tekmeci podjetja Nikon na področju izdelave fotoaparatov in objektivov so Canon, Casio, Kodak, Sony, Pentax, Panasonic, Fujifilm in Olympus.