Who owns yamaha company

Origins of the Yamaha Brand. History of Logo. Development of Products. Yamaha Philosophy. Brand Promise. Transfers shares of the lifestyle-related products subsidiary Completes integration of Japanese piano factories to Kakegawa Completes integration of Japanese wind instrument factories to Toyooka th years in business October 12th Establishes Yamaha Music Japan Co. Throughout the later s and into the early s, the racing success continued for Yamaha Motor Company, and by , they were setting up their first overseas subsidiary in Thailand.

In the early years, Yamaha had focused all of their attention on two-stroke engine designs, but in , they released their first four-stroke design with the XS This design would gain even more traction in the s with the release of the XS This era saw much larger cylinder displacements along with multi-cylinder engine layouts. Yamaha continued to find success with bikes like the XS and the XT Today Yamaha produces numerous types of motorsports vehicles, from motorcycles to ATVs to side by sides and even snowmobiles.

Their legendary motorcycles are currently divided into three groups: Dirt, Road, and Tour. In the world of Dirt, Yamaha makes numerous motocross bikes such as the YZF, as well as a selection of dual sport bikes that easily transition between pavement and dirt. The Stryker, Raider, and Bolt are all popular models. At the same time, the government granted Hamamatsu township status, which provided it with rail service and made it a regional commerce center.

Western musical traditions interested the Japanese government, which fostered and catered to growing enthusiasm for Western ideas. While Yamaha's technical education enabled him to manufacture a product, government investment in infrastructure made it possible for him to create a business.

Yamaha Organ used modern mass-production methods, and by it employed people and produced organs annually. During the s the more inexpensive upright piano surpassed the reed organ in popularity in U. Yamaha saw the potential of this market. In he renamed his company Nippon Gakki Co. He opened a new plant and headquarters in the Itaya-cho district of Hamamatsu.

In one of Yamaha's initial investors convinced other investors to pull out of Yamaha in favor of a competitor, a new organ maker that was near failure. Yamaha managed to borrow the money necessary to remain solvent and buy out his partners. Japan's government not only supported industrialization through heavy manufacturing, but also encouraged upstart businesses to contact overseas markets directly.

Expansion into pianos required more research, so the Japanese Ministry of Education sponsored a Yamaha tour of the United States in He was to study piano making and to establish suppliers for the materials needed to produce pianos in Japan. In one year Nippon Gakki produced its first piano.

Governmental and institutional orders were the first filled, including some for the Ministry of Education. In , with U. In the company produced 21 pianos. Nippon Gakki demonstrated its new pianos in select international exhibitions. Between and , the company received awards for its pianos and organs that had never before gone to a Japanese manufacturer, for example a Grand Prix at the St.

Louis World Exposition in World War I curtailed sales by a German harmonica marker in Japan, so Nippon Gakki took the opportunity to broaden its product base and begin making and exporting harmonicas. Producing new products that required the same raw materials and manufacturing skills became a major operating principle for Nippon Gakki.

Yamaha died suddenly during the war. He had succeeded in introducing Western instruments and assembly techniques, but despite his assembly lines, piano making was still a craftsperson's industry at the time of his death. Vice-President Chiyomaru Amano assumed the presidency in His political contacts had helped the company expand. He saw the company through repeated labor strife for ten years before being replaced. World War I produced tremendous growth in Japanese industry, and Nippon Gakki grew with it, supplying Asian markets cut off from traditional sources of supply.

By it employed 1, workers and produced 10, organs and 1, pianos a year. The sales records set during the war continued afterward, despite recession. The next five years nearly put the company in bankruptcy. Appreciation of the yen, which made Nippon Gakki products less competitive overseas, was part of the problem. In , fire destroyed a new plant in Nakazawa and the main Itayacho plant in Hamamatsu.

The next year the Great Kanto earthquake destroyed the Tokyo office and again damaged company plants. Before the company recovered, labor unions went on strike after Amano refused to negotiate. Amano gave in to the union's demands days later, after the company's reserves were depleted. Board member Kaichi Kawakami, by request of the other directors, took the presidency in A director of Sumitomo Wire Company, Kawakami made an unexpectedly nontraditional choice in accepting the position at the troubled company.

Kawakami cut production costs and reorganized the company. Half of all debts were paid within 18 months of Kawakami taking over.

Between the world wars, Western imports still dominated the Japanese sales of Western instruments. Since Nippon Gakki's advantage was in price alone, Kawakami opened an acoustics lab and research center in to improve quality.

He also hired advisors from C. Bechstein of Germany to improve the quality of the Yamaha piano. The growth of the public school system of the s expanded the market for Western instruments, and Nippon Gakki introduced lower priced accordions and guitars to capitalize on the expansion. As with expansion during World War I, these items laid the groundwork for broader diversification in the postwar years.

In the meantime, Nippon Gakki had to stop making musical instruments altogether in Only one Nippon Gakki factory survived the wartime U. Postwar financial assistance from the United States made possible the production of harmonicas and xylophones just two months after receipt of the funds. Within six months it produced organs, accordions, tube horns, and guitars. After the Allied powers approved civilian trade in , Nippon Gakki began once again to export harmonicas.

Nippon Gakki already had experience with wooden aircraft parts dating back to , but wartime activity exposed the company to new technologies. By Nippon Gakki could cast its own metal piano frames and produced its first pianos in three years. The company also produced its first audio component--a phonograph--in Postwar growth was rapid. The Japanese government had fostered the growth of Western music in Japan since , but Nippon Gakki received its biggest boost to date in That year the Education Ministry mandated musical education for Japanese children--only encouraged before the war--and greatly expanded business.

Kaichi Kawakami's son, Gen'ichi Kawakami, became the company's fourth president in During his tenure the Japanese rebuilt their economy, and consumer buying power increased. Nippon Gakki became less reliant on institutional purchases. President for 27 years, Kawakami made more progress in popularizing Western music in Japan by beginning the Yamaha Music Schools in to train young musicians.

With the help of the Ministry of Education, Nippon Gakki founded the nonprofit Yamaha Music Foundation in to sponsor festivals and concerts and run the music schools. Kawakami's biggest accomplishments were in production, diversification, and the creation of foreign markets, all of which built the framework for the modern Yamaha Corporation.

Kawakami toured the United States and Europe in , a trip that inspired diversification into many areas unrelated to the music industry.