Canon and Epson have halted their production in Japan’s worst affected areas.

Both OEMs have been forced to close some of their facilities in the aftermath of Friday’s huge earthquake. 

Canon has reported cases of power shortages as well as damage to buildings and production equipment, primarily in the worst affected area of northern Honshu. The earthquake had the greatest impact on Canon’s Utsunomiya Plant, Toride Plant and on its group companies Canon Precision Inc, Canon Optron, Canon Chemicals, Fukushima Canon and Canon Mold.

Production in all of these facilities has been halted. Canon has not yet given an estimated of how long it will take to repair the damage and restart operations. Canon said in a statement: “In the event that production operations may be suspended for one month or more, the company will consider making use of alternate sites that are not damaged by the earthquake as a means of continuing production.”

Fellow Japanese OEM Epson has also seen some of its major facilities affected by the natural disaster. Most severely damaged were Epson Atmix, Seiko Epson Corporation Plant and the Tohoku Epson Corporation, as well as the Epson Corporation Fukushima plant. Production has been halted at all of these facilities, and there is no information on when operations will be resumed.

Shortly after the earthquake, Epson established a Disaster Headquarters, headed by the company’s President Minoru Usui, at its headoffice in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture. The headquarters will collect information about the damage suffered by the OEM and will begin to determine appropriate countermeasures.

In addition, both OEMs have contributed to the ongoing relief efforts in Japan. Canon has donated 300 million yen ($3,658,447 USD) to the Japanese Red Cross while Epson has contributed 100 million yen ($1,219,672 USD) to the charity.

If you would like to contribute to relief efforts in Japan you can do so by donating to your national Red Cross.