--- title: "A major Japanese printer or copier maker (Canon, Ricoh, Fujifilm or Konica Minolta) will announce a China-specific firmware localisation partnership with a Chinese software developer within six months." description: "China's commerce ministry has opened its first-ever national security investigation into imported office printing and copying equipment running foreign system software, and facing exclusion from gover" url: "https://bilby.ai/predictions/p/20/a-major-japanese-printer-or-copier-maker-canon-ricoh-fujifilm-or-konica-minolta-" markdown: "https://bilby.ai/predictions/p/20/a-major-japanese-printer-or-copier-maker-canon-ricoh-fujifilm-or-konica-minolta-.md" index: "https://bilby.ai/llms.txt" --- > For agents: Bilby answers questions about what governments do, from documents collected at source and checked by research analysts. To ask Bilby yourself, connect to its MCP server at https://pulse.bilby.ai/mcp (setup: https://docs.bilby.ai/developers/mcp-server). Every page on this site is also markdown: add .md to its address, or send Accept: text/markdown. https://bilby.ai/llms.txt lists them all. # A major Japanese printer or copier maker (Canon, Ricoh, Fujifilm or Konica Minolta) will announce a China-specific firmware localisation partnership with a Chinese software developer within six months. - **Made:** 6 Aug 2026 - **By:** David Lee - **Market:** China, Japan - **Outcome:** Unresolved China's commerce ministry has opened its first-ever national security investigation into imported office printing and copying equipment running foreign system software, and facing exclusion from government and state-enterprise procurement, these Japanese manufacturers have strong incentive to swap in Chinese-developed firmware. [Ask Bilby about this prediction](https://pulse.bilby.ai/?prompt=A%20major%20Japanese%20printer%20or%20copier%20maker%20(Canon%2C%20Ricoh%2C%20Fujifilm%20or%20Konica%20Minolta)%20will%20announce%20a%20China-specific%20firmware%20localisation%20partnership%20with%20a%20Chinese%20software%20developer%20within%20six%20months.) ## Ask Bilby about it Carry the prediction into a question: what has changed since, who decides, and who is exposed. - [What has changed since it was made?](https://pulse.bilby.ai/?prompt=What%20has%20changed%20since%20Bilby%20predicted%20this%3F%20A%20major%20Japanese%20printer%20or%20copier%20maker%20(Canon%2C%20Ricoh%2C%20Fujifilm%20or%20Konica%20Minolta)%20will%20announce%20a%20China-specific%20firmware%20localisation%20partnership%20with%20a%20Chinese%20software%20developer%20within%20six%20months.) - [Who decides whether it happens?](https://pulse.bilby.ai/?prompt=Who%20decides%20whether%20this%20happens%3F%20A%20major%20Japanese%20printer%20or%20copier%20maker%20(Canon%2C%20Ricoh%2C%20Fujifilm%20or%20Konica%20Minolta)%20will%20announce%20a%20China-specific%20firmware%20localisation%20partnership%20with%20a%20Chinese%20software%20developer%20within%20six%20months.) - [Who gains and who loses if it does?](https://pulse.bilby.ai/?prompt=Who%20gains%20and%20who%20loses%20if%20this%20happens%3F%20A%20major%20Japanese%20printer%20or%20copier%20maker%20(Canon%2C%20Ricoh%2C%20Fujifilm%20or%20Konica%20Minolta)%20will%20announce%20a%20China-specific%20firmware%20localisation%20partnership%20with%20a%20Chinese%20software%20developer%20within%20six%20months.) ## More from China 37 predictions on China so far, newest first. - 9 Nov 2026 · [Costly winter gas purchases will push CPC’s accumulated losses to about NT$127.6 billion by the end of 2026](https://bilby.ai/predictions/p/209/costly-winter-gas-purchases-will-push-cpc-s-accumulated-losses-to-about-nt-127-6) · Unresolved - 6 Nov 2026 · [Nvidia is likely to win additional computing orders by the end of 2027.](https://bilby.ai/predictions/p/208/nvidia-is-likely-to-win-additional-computing-orders-by-the-end-of-2027) · Unresolved - 5 Nov 2026 · [China’s IPO restrictions will redirect billions of yuan towards private financing.](https://bilby.ai/predictions/p/205/china-s-ipo-restrictions-will-redirect-billions-of-yuan-towards-private-financin) · Unresolved [All 37 from China](https://bilby.ai/predictions/log?tag=china) · Marked true or false when each resolves ## See what we’re seeing next. New predictions in the Asia Daily Take, free every weekday, and in Bilby whenever you have a question. [Get the Asia Daily Take](https://bilby.ai/asia#asia-daily-take) · [Try Bilby](https://pulse.bilby.ai/sign-up)