Yamaha Corporation

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This article is about the music equipment manufacturer. For the mobility company that was spun off in
1955, see Yamaha Motor Company.

Yamaha Corporation (ヤマハ株式会社, Yamaha Kabushiki gaisha, /ˈjæməˌhɑː/; Japanese pronunciation:

[jamaha]) is a Japanese musical instrument and audio equipment manufacturer.

Yamaha Corporation

Yamaha Corporation's headquarters in Hamamatsu, Japan

Native name

ヤマハ株式会社

Romanized name

Yamaha kabushiki gaisha

Formerly

Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd. (1887–1987)

Company type

Public KK

Traded as
 TYO: 7951

Nikkei 225 component

Founded

October 12, 1887; 136 years ago

Founder

Torakusu Yamaha

Headquarters

10-1, Nakazawacho, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka

, Japan

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Takuya Nakata [jp], President and Representative Executive Officer

Products

Musical instruments, audio equipment

Revenue

Increase ¥408.2 billion (2017)[1]

Operating income

Increase ¥44.3 billion (2017)[verification needed][1]

Net income

Increase ¥46.7 billion (2017)[verification needed][1]

Number of employees

28,112 (including temporary employees) (2017)[1]

Subsidiaries

List

Ampeg

Bösendorfer

Deagan

Line 6

Steinberg

Yamaha Artist Services

Yamaha Drums

Yamaha Entertainment Group

Yamaha Pro Audio

and more

Website

yamaha.com

It is one of the constituents of Nikkei 225 and is the world's largest musical instrument manufacturing
company.[2] The former motorcycle division was established in 1955 as Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., which
started as an affiliated company but later became independent.

History edit

Torakusu Yamaha, founder of Yamaha Corporation

Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd. (日本楽器製造株式会社, Nihon Gakki Seizō Kabushiki gaisha, lit. 'Japan Musical
Instrument Manufacture') was established in 1887 as a reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu Yamaha
(山葉寅楠) in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture and was incorporated on 12 October 1897. In 1900, the
company manufactured its first piano, the first piano to be made in Japan[3], and its first grand piano
two years later. In 1987, 100 years after the first reed organ built by Yamaha, the company was renamed
Yamaha Corporation in honor of its founder.[4] The company's origins as a musical instrument
manufacturer are still reflected today in the group's logo—a trio of interlocking tuning forks.[5][3]

After World War II, company president Genichi Kawakami repurposed the remains of the company's
war-time production machinery and the company's expertise in metallurgical technologies to the
manufacture of motorcycles. The YA-1 (AKA Akatombo, the "Red Dragonfly"), of which 125 were built in
the first year of production (1954), was named in honour of the founder. It was a 125cc, single cylinder,
two-stroke street bike patterned after the German DKW RT 125 (which the British munitions firm, BSA,
had also copied in the post-war era and manufactured as the Bantam and Harley-Davidson as the
Hummer). In 1955,[6] the success of the YA-1 resulted in the founding of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.,
splitting the motorcycle division from the company. Also, in 1954 the Yamaha Music School was
founded.[3]

Yamaha has grown into the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments (including pianos,
"silent" pianos, drums, guitars, brass instruments, woodwinds, violins, violas, cellos, and vibraphones),
and a leading manufacturer of semiconductors, audio/visual, computer related products, sporting
goods, home appliances, specialty metals, and industrial robots.[7] Yamaha released the Yamaha CS-80
in 1977.

In 1983, Yamaha made the first commercially successful digital synthesizer, the Yamaha DX7.

In 1988, Yamaha shipped the world's first CD recorder.[8] Yamaha purchased Sequential Circuits in 1988.
[9] It bought a majority stake (51%) of competitor Korg in 1987, which was bought out by Korg in 1993.
[10]