Again, one more time for the world: Nikon is a publicly traded company, with many investors. It is not was not and never has been owned or governed by Mitsubishi, and never has been under any umbrella of Mitsubishi, whatsoever, period.
For the record, for readers interested in Nikon's history, you're not correct.
Nikon was created by Mitsubishi, specifically the Mitsubishi Trading Co. In 1917-18, Mitsubishi bought parts of three pre-existing glass and optics companies and merged them into the company now known as Nikon. A fourth component was an experimental optical glass laboratory operated by the Japanese Navy; the Navy turned it over to Mitsubishi, which merged it into Nikon.
Mitsubishi formed Nikon at the request (really, it was a command) of the Japanese Navy, which wanted to create a precision optical manufacturing capability in Japan, as a security measure. Prior to the creation of Nikon, Japan had no viable ability to make optical glass or precision optics. Nikon is the grandfather of the now world-renowned precision optics industry in Japan, which now comprises hundreds of companies.
Nikon remained a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi (i.e. part of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu) until 1947, when Mitsubishi was forced by the U.S. occupation authorities to disband itself. The zaibatsus, including Mitsubishi, established the keiretsu system in response.
Nikon is Nikon, a wholly independent company unto its own, with investors including the public. End of discussion.
It's not so simple. The way keiretsus operate has no real analog in U.S. and European business, and the keiretsu system has also evolved quite a bit since it was created in the 1940s. Members of a keiretsu are independent companies, but, especially in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, they acted as a kind of collective. Less so in recent decades, overall.
But as others pointed out, members of the Mitsubishi collective still own a very large proportion of Nikon's stock (and Nikon, in turn, owns stock in many other Mitsubishi-affiliated companies). Nobody could gain control of Nikon without the permission of the Mitsubishi collective. Too much of Nikon's stock is cross-owned by other Mitsubishi-affiliated companies.
It's worth noting that Nikon is part of the Mitsubishi kinyokai -- the top-tier 30 or so companies within the Mitsubishi collective that once oversaw the group's business activities. In other words, Nikon was a member of the ruling committee of the Mitsubishi collective. The kinyokai doesn't really rule any more, according to what I've read, so that's much less important now. But 30-40 years ago, it was a big deal.
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