The award for technical achievement that was presented to Yamaha at the 2007 Grammy Awards recognized Yamaha’s long tradition of innovative recording products, another facet of the company so well known for their pianos and keyboards, woodwinds, string and percussion instruments, and digital musical gear. The last half-century has seen the company diversify into products from sporting goods to specialty metals, with three-fourths of Yamaha Corporation’s sales coming from its musical instrument and audio products divisions. The company’s logo, three interlocking tuning forks, is a tangible expression of its musical focus. Setting the stage for innovation
Yamaha’s story begins in late 19th century Japan, a fertile environment for young entrepreneurs. The Meiji Restoration movement was underway at the time, changing Japan’s social and political structures and resulting in the growth of new technologies and middle-class entrepreneurs. Yamaha founder Torakusu Yamaha was ready for the opportunities, benefiting from an unusually good education provided by his samurai father, whose broad interests ranged from astronomy to mechanics.
Yamaha formed a watch-making company when 20 years old, later going to medical school and taking a job repairing medical equipment. In 1887 a school in the small fishing village of Hamamatsu turned to him to see if he would repair the school’s treasured U.S.-made reed organ. Intrigued with the instrument and its sales potential, Yamaha produced a prototype organ. Soon Yamaha established the Yamaha Organ Manufacturing Company in 1889, and soon was making 250 organs a year.
Eventually Yamaha established the Yamaha Organ Manufacturing Company in 1889, and soon was making 250 organs a year.
Yamaha renamed his company Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd. (Japan Musical Instruments) in 1897, expanding into pianos as the more inexpensive upright piano was gaining popularity in U.S. homes. On a trip to the United States in 1899, Yamaha studied piano making and located suppliers for the materials needed to make pianos in Japan. Yamaha keyboards began to garner international recognition, including a Grand Prix at the St. Louis World Exposition in 1904.
The war years: trials and growth
When World War I curtailed sales in Japan by a German harmonica maker, Nippon Gakki broadened its product base by making harmonicas. Producing new products with materials and manufacturing skills already in place became a favored strategy.
Yamaha died in 1916, but his legacy lives on. His introduction of Western production techniques transformed what had been handcrafting processes. Vice-President Chiyomaru Amano assumed the reigns of the company in 1917, fostering growth through the war years by supplying then isolated Asian markets. The upward trend continued after the war as demand for the company’s pianos soared.
The next five years were tougher for Yamaha. The stronger yen made Nippon Gakki products less competitive overseas, a 1922 fire destroyed 2 company plants, and the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 destroyed the Tokyo office and re-damaged the plants.
Kaichi Kawakami assumed leadership in 1927, cutting production costs and reorganizing the company. Nippon Gakki opened an acoustics lab and research and development center in 1930, while hiring German advisors to improve the quality of the Yamaha piano. The growth of the public school system of the 1930s expanded the market for Western instruments, prompting Nippon Gakki to introduce lower-priced accordions and guitars.
When World War II began, Nippon Gakki plants were tapped for the war effort, which helped them to prepare for broader diversification in the postwar years. But Nippon Gakki had to stop making musical instruments altogether in 1945, with only one of their factories surviving the U.S. bombing raids. However, with postwar financial assistance the company regained its feet and quickly resumed the production of harmonicas and xylophones. More product lines followed, including organs, accordions, tube horns, and guitars.
From Japan to the world
In 1947 the company produced its first audio component, a phonograph, marking the beginning of a period of rapid growth. The Japanese government continued to promote Western music, giving Nippon Gakki its biggest boost yet in 1948 by making music education mandatory for Japanese children.
Gen’ichi Kawakami, Kaichi Kawakami’s son, assumed the company’s helm in 1950, starting the Yamaha Music Schools program in 1954 to educate young musicians. With the help of the Ministry of Education Nippon Gakki founded the nonprofit Yamaha Music Foundation in 1966 to promote musical events and operate their music schools that are now found in Japan and 40 other countries.
Kawakami oversaw gains in production, diversification, and the generation of foreign markets, all of which set the stage for the modern Yamaha Corporation. Kawakami’s 1953 trip to the United States and Europe inspired diversification and otherwise influenced the company’s product line and reputation for decades to come just as Yamaha’s tour of the United States in 1899 had.
Setting sail for international markets
Capitalizing on its research into fiberglass reinforced plastics (FRP), in 1960 the company made its first FRP sailboat, then expanded to produce various types of oceangoing vessels. This capability led to the introduction of other products including archery bows, skis, and bathtubs. Nippon Gakki also developed sophisticated alloys for use in electronics and construction equipment.
The company expanded production of pianos during this period while raising quality standards, and cutting costs. But it was Yamaha motorcycles that would lead Yamaha’s marketing effort in the U.S. in the early 1960s, with smaller, lower-priced models that appealed to first-time buyers.
The push to export picked up momentum, as Yamaha established a subsidiary in Mexico and within a couple of years had set up a sales outlet in Los Angeles. Yamaha’s musical instrument division received a boost when a deal was worked out with the Los Angeles Board of Education to supply L.A. schools with pianos, opening the way for more institutional purchases of Nippon Gakki’s high-quality, lower-cost instruments.
Nippon Gakki expanded its event promotion and educational programs overseas in 1964, when it opened the first Yamaha School in the U.S. Like its Japanese counterparts, it was designed to teach music appreciation to students at an early age and create a long-term market. These nonprofit schools spread throughout Europe and the United States, teaching scores of students. Educational efforts were also beginning to pay off in Japan, growing the domestic piano market exponentially. By 1966 the company was producing 100,000 pianos annually, making them the world’s largest piano maker. Nippon Gakki began to produce wind instruments on a large scale during the mid ’60s, exporting trumpets, trombones and xylophones. The company also began producing drums and percussion instruments during this period.
Nippon Gakki’s electronics capability continued to evolve with technological developments, replacing transistors with integrated circuits (ICs). The company built its own IC factory, positioning itself to meet the accelerating demand for electronic and audio products.
With the advent of large-scale integrated circuits (LSIs), the company leaped into the burgeoning digital market. LSIs let Yamaha digitize all its analog electronics and also made possible their growth as an electronics supplier and the manufacturer of advanced electronic systems such as industrial robots.
Synthesizers and LSIs brought the company success early in the 1980s, notably with the 1983 introduction of the DX-7 digital synthesizer, which became the best-selling synthesizer ever. With LSI technology, Nippon Gakki produced its first pro audio system and tapped into the consumer audio industry in the early ’80s.
Nippon Gakki’s research and development facilities evolved to encompass semiconductors and LSIs, audiovisual equipment, and theater acoustics design.
Nippon Gakki also began to spread its manufacturing base overseas, opening a keyboard plant in the state of Georgia in the U.S. Seisuke Ueshima assumed the company leadership in the early ’90s, consolidating the product mix and marketing strategies, which had lost some of their focus. A push was made into the high-end music market with products like the Disklavier series pianos, which included sophisticated onboard digital recording capability.
The sound of silence
The Silent Piano series was introduced in 1992. These instruments could either be played as regular acoustic pianos or be heard only by the pianist through headphones, were a great success. This was followed by the release of the Silent Trumpet, Silent Drums, the Silent Violin, and the Silent Cello.
Yamaha also succeeded with their VL1 and VP1 virtual acoustic synthesizers, which stored computer models of instruments rather than sound libraries, resulting in more authentic and versatile sounds. A Yamaha FM sound chip was also introduced during this period, taking advantage of demand for sound chips for multimedia computers.The MOTIF is another Yamaha synthesizer series that has attracted a large and enthusiastic following.
In the end, the Yamaha story always comes back to the music. Shuji Ito was named president as the new century began, and has continued to focus on core musical instruments and audiovisual gear. Yamaha continues to pioneer forward-looking technologies such as sound chips and digital content for mobile phones and other handheld devices, and has formed a recording company called Yamaha Music Communications Co., Ltd.. They aspire to eventually offer online downloading of music content and the development of network-enabled musical instruments.
While most companies focus on maximizing profits, Yamaha’s stated corporate objective is to create ’Kando,’ a Japanese word that means "an inspired state of mind." It’s a concept that has propelled Yamaha into being one of the most successful and cosmopolitan companies in the world. It’s clear that wherever music and musicians go in the future, Yamaha will be there.
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