A History of

Challenges
Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9

Chairman, Yamazaki Mazak Corporation

Teruyuki Yamazaki

Articles included in this brochure are reproduced with the prior permission of the publisher Asahi Shimbun Company.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or redistributed without prior permission of the publisher.

A History of Challenges 06.05.10000 T 99J624806E0

 Introduction
This brochure includes all 10 articles regarding Mr. Teruyuki
Yamazaki, Chairman of Yamazaki Mazak Corporation, that
were published in a series by the Asahi Shimbun with the title
of "Milestones - Tokai Economics" from February 22nd 2006 to
March 7th. This series describes the passions and challenges
of a variety of business persons, such as Mr. Yukihisa Hirano - I N D E X Part. 1 Going to the U.S to Revive the Company
the President of the Central Japan International Airport 04
Company, Ltd., Mr. Yoshihiro Yasui - Representative Director
Part. 2 First Machine Exported to the U.S.
and Chairman of Brother Industries, Ltd., Mr. Toshikage Tanida
06
- the founder and Executive Corporate Adviser of Pokka
Corporation, and others in the Tokai area, which has been
Part. 3 Learning Manufacturing Skill Through Repair
enjoying the most robust economic climate in Japan. The
07
series started in October 2005 and Mr. Teruyuki Yamazaki
was introduced in the 9th article Part. 4 Challenging the European Market
This is the success story of Mr. Yamazaki, who expanded a 08
small machine shop in Nagoya Japan to the leading machine
tool builder in the world by encountering a variety of Part. 5 Sales with our Brand Name
challenges such as exporting machine tools to the U.S., 09
starting local production there more than 10 years earlier than
Toyota, development of conversationally programmed CNC Part. 6 Breakthrough Crisis with Conversationally Programmed CNC
systems, and building FMS factories.
10

Part. 7 Introduction of FMS / Unmanned Factory

11

Part. 8 A Phone Call from Mrs. Thatcher

12

Part. 9 Difficulties for Local Production

13

Part. 10 Developing Original Technology

14

Chronology
15

02 Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9 Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9 03

 Teruyuki Yamazaki
Born in 1928, 77 years old, from Atsuta-ku,
Nagoya, Japan. After leaving Takushoku
University, he begun to work at Yamazaki
Machinery (previous name of Yamazaki
Mazak) owned by his father. He became
general manager in 1949 and president in
1962 after the death of his father. He was
president of Yamazaki Mazak until 2001 and
is currently chairman of the company board of
directors.
Hobbies
He always makes it a point to visit art
よこがお when he is in other countries for
museums
business. Since he could not be satisfied by
just watching, he began to purchase works
of art. Currently, he owns more than a
hundred of works of art, including those by
artists such as Picasso and Delacroix. He
says, "A machine tool builder needs an
artistic taste to manufacture. Accordingly, I
learn such taste from all over the world."
Going to the U.S to Revive the Company
t the beginning of February, I gave an (previous name of Yamazaki Mazak), could not
during World War II, manufacturing machine
tools with the same-quality as those produced
in the U.S was a dream for Japanese machine
tool builders. However, I was in the situation that
I had to believe this dream - since my company
was on the brink of going bankrupt because of
a bad decision I had made.
In an economic boom led by capital investment,
the machine tool industry in Japan was very
busy from the end of 1959 to the fall of 1961.
We could not handle all of our orders even if we
worked day and night. During that time, I made
the biggest decision in my life. It was to build a
new manufacturing plant in Oguchi, where the
present Mazak headquarters is located. To
avoid the expansion and contraction of material
due to temperature changes, I decided to install
air conditioners in the new manufacturing plant
which was extremely rare at that time. The cost
to build the plant was equal to about half of our
annual sales, and I covered most of this by
going into debt.
About the same time the manufacturing plant
was completed, the economic boom suddenly
severely contracted and purchase orders
stopped. Since our brand was still weak, the
condition of the company in this business
When I arrived in New York, I saw a totally
different world...the Empire State Building
towered into the sky, steam for heating blew
from the streets...everywhere I looked was
advanced technology that I had never seen
before. I could easily see the reason that Japan
lost the war.
The president of a U.S machine tool distributor
quickly came to the point in a business
negotiation."We would like to purchase 200
machines immediately." There was no possibility
for such a large order in Japan. However, what
surprised me was the terms and conditions. He
said, "The price we will pay is $3,000 per
machine." This price was 20% to 30% lower
than the price in Japan. In addition, he asked
for more than 30 specification changes such as
modifying the machine setting from metric to
inch, adding a special process for increased
durability, and many others.
I was very concerned about the profit margin. I
wanted to ask to raise the price. However, I also
knew bad quality Japanese machine tools were
substitutes for used U.S machine tools. I had to
accept his toughly worded offer. To start with, I
closed the deal by agreeing to manufacture 30
prototype lathes. With considerable relief, I

A order to approximately 40 general

managers of overseas subsidiaries in
the meeting room of Yamazaki Mazak
Corporation Headquarters' fourth floor - "We will
increase sales by responding to the worldwide
favorable capital investment environment." This
was given at the "International Conference,"
where each overseas subsidiary representative
presents their business plan for the next fiscal
year. This International Meeting is held once a
year.
This year's meeting, which started February 2nd,
lasted much longer than previous years. We
had hardball discussions all day during the
meeting every day, and the meeting ended on
February 16th. Through these discussions with
representatives of the U.S, the U.K, China,
Brazil, India, Russia, and other countries, I
realized that we have become a leading
company of machine tool builders. However, I
believe we could not have achieved this
success with out experiencing a "Turing Point"
many years ago.
sleep in the propeller-driven airliner bound for
New York due to my deep anxiety. A doubt that
recession was very serious. I moved all
employees from every department - from
production to office clerks, to sales. We even
thought "My company may not go bankrupt with
this deal."
Since this order was reported, "The First
we can sell our machine tools in the U.S kept
loaded a small truck with a machine tool and Success - Export to U.S" in newspapers, our
coming into my head over and over. The
made sales directly from factory to factory. name was starting to be recognized in Japan.
purpose of my first trip to the U.S was a
However, sales did not expand as I expected However, manufacturing the requested machine
business negotiation to save Yamazaki
and our financial condition became worse day tools was not easy. I soon recognized that their
Machinery which at that time was in perilous
by day. request was much more difficult than I thought.
financial condition. I was under enormous
pressure because if this business negotiation
failed, it meant the end of our company.
The trigger of this business trip to the U.S was
good news from a trading company, "there is a
distributor in the U.S that wants to purchase a
couple hundred of your machine tools."
However, nobody believed a Japanese
machine tool builder could export its machines
to the U.S in those days. A machine tool is used
to machine parts that are measured in 1 um
(0.00004") increments which are used by
virtually every industry. It is no exaggeration to
say that a quality of a company's products
depends on the quality of its machine tools. As

I believe it was in June 1962. I, a senior

managing director of Yamazaki Machinery
a result, it is sometimes said that machine tools
are an indicator to measure a country's overall
level of technology. Since Japan witnessed the
1961
November 1961 - sales trucks for machine tools. Sales were made
overwhelming advanced technology of the U.S directly from factory to factory

Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 22, 2006

04 Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9 Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9 05


1968
Conveyor line for engine lathe
assembly in 1968 - installed to
support the successful exporting of
machine tools to the U.S.
First Machine
Exported to the U.S
he changes in more than
T 30-specifications that were
requested by a U.S distributor was
not an easy job. It was necessary for us to
change the manufacturing methods of most of
the parts. One of the most difficult was
quenching cast iron for improved durability.
No Japanese machine tool builder had this
technique during this time.
If metal is heated it will twist and bend. If we
machined the surface of quenched cast iron
to make it flat, most of the heat treated
material would be removed. The production
department was about to give up because of
many difficulties.
Through trial and error, the manufacturing of
30 prototype lathes was completed on
December 1962, which was about half a year
from when I received the order. To inspect the
machines, the sales manager of the
distributor came to our factory. Although we
welcomed him with confidence, as he saw the
machines, he pointed out items that did not
comply with their specifications such as
incorrect handle positions, and said, "We
cancel this order."
Exporting to the U.S was a significant
challenge and the only way to recover my
company from its financial difficulties. If this
order were cancelled, all the efforts to
manufacture the 30 prototype lathes would be
worthless.
Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 23, 2006
06 Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9
After desperate negotiations, he accepted to
purchase 200 machines at once if we passed
the next inspection. I said to our discouraged
employees, "if we overcome these difficulties,
we can sell our machines all over the world,".
In April 1963, the manufacturing of 200 lathes
to be exported to the U.S was completed.
Soon afterwards, we passed the inspection.
In May 1963, all the company employees
gathered and saw the first machine for export
leave the Oguchi factory. When the truck
loaded with the machine passed through the
gate, all the employees made joyous shouts
to mark our success. As I saw it, I could not
help but cry.
Our business relationship with the distributor
continued even after this order. In addition,
selling our products in the U.S market
became one of our business strengths
because if the economy in Japan declined,
we could still sell our products in the U.S.
However, the most significant achievement
we realized through this business was
experience with advanced manufacturing
technologies and way to think about cost. A
variety of new ideas to meet difficult requests
contributed to starting Mazak on the road to
be a leading company.
n 1945, when I was studying Indian
I language at Takushoku University, my
father ordered me to come back home
and help his business. At the end of the year, I
went back to Noto in Ishikawa-Prefecture.
Although I had a dream to perform special work
for the Japanese military, the dream
disappeared simultaneously with the end of
war.
My father founded Yamazaki Machinery in 1919
in Nagoya where I was born. During the war, the
company manufactured components of
machine tools and military aircraft. However,
because the factory was destroyed during an
air-raid, my father evacuated to Noto that was
close to his home town.
Although I left the university with the strong
determination that "I am the only person who
can help my father," living in the countryside
such as Noto was misery for me who knew only
urban life in Tokyo and Nagoya. I was whining
to my father everyday that we should go back to
Nagoya. In June 1947, my father decided to
move his factory back to Nagoya.
We had already decided to manufacture wood
working machinery in Nagoya. However, when
we installed a machine tool to manufacture
parts of wood working machinery, many people
asked us to sell the machine tool.
After World War II, the U. S. Occupation
Administration prohibited the manufacture of
Learning Manufacturing Skill Through Repair
new machine tools in Japan since machine
tools could be used for war production.
Additionally, imported machine tools were too
expensive for most companies to purchase. In
this situation, we decided to start a machine tool
repair business. I believe this was a very
important experience in my life since I could
learn what the most important factors were for
the manufacturing of machine tools. When I
studied sophisticated western machine tools, I
could find the particular criss-cross pattern on
the surface of parts that was made by scraping.
This pattern can be made only when good
material and sophisticated manufacturing
techniques are used. If I scraped the parts
again and rebuilt them, the machine tool
returned to the same condition as a new one.
However, this could not be done for Japanese
machine tools. Since most of the components
were too damaged to fix, even though we
changed to new parts, the performance of the
machine tools could not be the same.
I thought, "Someday, I would like to be a first-
class machine tool builder that is accepted by
western countries." The repair business was the
catalyst for me to start manufacturing first-class
machine tools.
1935
Yamazaki Machinery machine shop in 1935.
The boy standing right of center is Teruyuki
Yamazaki
Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 24, 2006
Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9 07

Challenging the European Market
fter we were successful exporting
A our products to the U.S, we
began to make sales to other
countries. I believe it was around 1964.
Executive officers such as myself and
Tsunehiko, my younger brother, traveled
around the world with heavy baggage.
Inside the baggage were plenty of
catalogues and corporate profiles.
Norway, South Africa, Australia, Germany,
France, Italy, England... the number of
countries we visited was more than 30. In
each country, when we arrived at a town,
the first thing we did was to look for local
machine tool distributors in the phone
book and made phone calls to one and all.
We were confident because we could sell
our machine tools in the U.S. However,
most Europeans believed Japanese
products were cheap and bad quality at
that time. Additionally, most large
distributors had already entered into
distribution agreements with western
machine tool builders.
When we visited distributors' offices and
ask them to purchase our machines, no
one gave us any orders. We then asked
each distributor, "Could you please just
exhibit our machine tool in your show
room?" But we were told, "It's like trying
to sell Japanese wine in France." People
Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 25, 2006
08 Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9
1964
Study tour of the machine
tool market in the U.S.A.
at home and abroad ridiculed us like this.
However, I never gave up. After returning
to Japan from these trips, I always invited
those distributors to Japan to see our
factory. Thanks to all these efforts, the
number of machines we exported began
to gradually increase.
In Japan, diversified business
management is sometimes preferred since
a company can diversify a risk that may
lower business performance when the
economy or industrial structure changes. I
had experienced a time when many
companies used their idle assets to start
side businesses such as golf courses or
bowling centers.
However, I did not begin any other
business that was not related to machine
tools. Instead, I concentrated on
expanding our market. By starting in
foreign markets such as the U.S and
Europe much earlier than other Japanese
machine tool builders, we can depend on
relatively stable orders although the
machine tool industry normally
experiences significant boom-and-bust
cycles in each country. Currently, we
export our products to more than 60
countries.
ne thing I was aware of while I was brand name are you going to use?" I said, "It's
O traveling all over the world was the
importance of "Brand" for a product.
Mazak." He said, "That name is trademarked by
our company." As I recall this now, I think they
When I bought a perfume in France, a shop knew our plans. Even though I persisted that it
sales person explained that the perfume had was my name, he refused to budge.
the same scent as a first-class perfume sold in Unfortunately, I had to buy the brand name.
Paris. However, the price was one-half of the To sell our machines with our brand name, we
perfume in Paris. Although I considered selling first established a local U.S. corporation in New
the perfume could be a good business and York. Following that, I decided to build a factory
tried to sell the perfume in Japan, it was not in Kentucky in 1974 even though there were
successful, since the perfume did not have a many internal objections due to the high wages
well-known "Brand." that would have to be paid. I always think that
What annoyed me during that time was that we local production is the best way to meet local
did not our own brand. Although exporting requirements. We started local production in the
machines to U.S was smooth, the machines U.S 10 years earlier than Toyota.
were sold with the U.S importer's brand name.
To sell our machines with our own brand name,
I decided our brand name as "Mazak," which is
still used today.
The origin of the name is my family name,
Yamazaki. I knew Western people had difficulty
pronouncing Japanese names starting with "Y."
For this reason, I removed "Ya" first, then "i" at
the end to make the name sound similar to an
English name.
In 1968, I mustered up enough courage to
negotiate this with the U.S importer's president.
Although I began by saying, "I would like to sell
our machines with our brand name," the answer
was no. Therefore, I proposed to cancel the
contract. What surprised me was the next words
said by the president. He asked me, "What
Sales with our Brand Name
1985
New company logo introduced in
1985. Made by combining the "Y" of
Yamazaki and the "M" of Mazak
Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 28, 2006
Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9 09
 hen we celebrated the 50th
W Anniversary of the company in May
1969 at the Nagoya International
Hotel, I exhibited a gold colored machine tool in
the entrance lobby. Since the hotel staff worried
that the floor may collapse due to the machine
weight, the machine on display was just a shell.
However, every guest was very surprised to see
a machine tool whose surface was decorated
with gold foil.
Our company sales increased dramatically
thanks to our aggressive export strategy. The
annual sales of $2 million in 1959 when we
started to build machine tools became $80
million in 1969. Annual sales ballooned 40 times
in just 10 years.
However, we encountered another crisis, which
was the recession of 1971. The abrupt
appreciation of the yen was a great loss indeed
to my company which exported a large amount
of products to the U.S. Because the price in the
U.S is on a dollar basis, if we convert the dollar
amount to yen when the yen is stronger, the
amount we receive in Japan is much lower. I
sometimes moaned, "it's almost as if we have to
pay money to sell machines at this price," to our
employees in Japan. The reason we could
overcome this crisis was that we were able to
respond to a new machine tool market trend -
NC machine tools.
The machine tools we had manufactured up to
that time were manual - meaning that a skilled
craftsman was required for machine operation.
Breakthrough Crisis with
Conversationally Programmed CNC
1981
CNC lathe introduced in
1981. It was tremendously
successful thanks to the
revolutionary conversationally
programmed CNC system
Asahi Shimbun, Mar. 1, 2006
10 Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9
A tremendous amount of experience was
required in order to machine complex parts with
high precision. In such a machine tool market,
NC machine tools that automatically machines
parts according to a program with no skilled
operator requirement was introduced.
When NC was first introduced, it was very
expensive since its target was only for
advanced industries such as aerospace and
military. NC machine tools were not a product
that most machine tool customers, who were
medium and small size companies, could deal
with.
In 1968, I introduced a NC machine tool to the
market that cost less than $10,000. This was
made possible by intensive cost cutting.
Several years later, we began sales of a NC
machine that an operator could make a
machining program just by entering answers to
questions on the NC display. Machines with this
revolutionary NC sold like T-shirts. Some
customers came to our factory with cash and
their truck and said, "if you can deliver a
machine with the conversationally programmed
NC right now, I am ready to pay an additional
10%."
Thanks to our huge success with this NC, we
made a significant step towards becoming a
leading machine tool builder.
Introduction of FMS / Unmanned Factory
he company experienced a wild
T price spiral triggered by the oil
shock. I believe this was around
1975. I was very surprised at the amount
when I checked the total employee payroll
in my office because it had increased by
30% from the previous year. I began
calculations in a mad rush on my desk. "If
I assume new employees continue to work
till they retire and the starting salary of
anew employee increases 30% annually...I
think the total payroll will be $40 million to
$50 million. If I do not decrease the
number of employees in the factory, my
company will be bankrupt." Since I
thought that way, I began the
development of an unmanned factory,
which was the Flexible Manufacturing
System (FMS).
Around that time, machine tools had
advanced considerably from manually
operated machines to NC machines,
which automatically machined workpieces
according to the machining program. FMS
was the next step for NC machine tools. A
FMS is constructed of multiple connected
machine tools and controlled by a
computer. If a machine tool finishes
machining a workpiece, the FMS
automatically unloads the finished
workpiece and loads raw material for the
next workpiece into the machine. Thanks
1981
Leading edge unmanned system.
Designed for 720 hours unmanned
operation thanks to the utilization of an
intelligent robot.
to this system, for example, unmanned
operation can be performed from 10:00
PM to 6:00 AM without any operator.
In 1981, when we opened the new Oguchi
plant in which the FMS was installed, I
received many requests for factory tours
and interviews. What surprised me was
that there were many persons who were
not related to the machine tool industry,
such as women's groups and the PTA, for
example, who wanted to visit our FMS.
Although coffee expense for visitors
sometimes was more than $10,000 per
month - if I consider the cost as
advertisement expense, I think it is very
low.
The FMS greatly contributed to make my
company famous. Some advertisement
agency calculated this exposure had the
same effect as $100 million of advertising.
Influential people of the U.S financial
market also attended to the opening
ceremony of the FMS factory. I believe
they talked about the factory in the U.S.
and Western mass media such as the Wall
Street Journal and the BBC visited our
factory for my interview. This interview
links to the dramatic story I will describe
next.
Asahi Shimbun, Mar. 2, 2006
Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9 11
 1984
Assembly line in the U.K
factory - the production base
for the European market
A Phone Call from the "Iron Lady"
n 1984 I received a telephone call
I which my secretary said, "It's from
the Foreign Ministry." I thought, "I
could understand if the phone call was from
the Department of Trade and Industry... why
from the Foreign Ministry...?" I asked my
secretary to put the call through. A person
from the Foreign Ministry said,"During the
recent Japan- U. K. summit meeting, Mrs.
Thatcher, the Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom, asked Mr. Nakasone, the Prime
Minister of Japan, if Yamazaki Mazak would
build a factory in the U. K. Would you consider
building a factory in the U. K.?" I assume that
she had heard about my FMS factory in Japan.
Although I was amazed and surprised to
receive this telephone call, the timing was
fortunate as I was planning to build a factory in
Europe around that time.
The countries being considered for the factory
were the Netherlands, Germany and the United
Kingdom. I was hesitating to make a decision
as each country had its own advantages and
disadvantages. Taking advantage of the
summit meeting, I began negotiations with the
U.K a short time later. The U.K government
offered an extremely attractive condition - "the
U.K government will pay half the cost of
machine tools that will be installed in the U.K
factory." This condition was very surprising
even to the staff of the Foreign Ministry. They
Asahi Shimbun, Mar. 3, 2006
12 Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9
said, "if nothing else but a tax reduction or low-
interest loan, any subsidy to a foreign
company is like a dream." I decided to build
the factory in the U.K.
After some time, protests were raised in
Germany and France against the subsidy.
Articles appeared in European newspapers
daily that said, "it is not equitable to give a
subsidy to a particular company".
Europe is an exclusive area. We still have
some problems selling machine tools in
Germany. I think the idea of us having a
factory in the U.K was like a plague for
European machine tool builders.
Since the unexpected protest was
considerable, I once told a U.K cabinet
member that I would give up building a factory
in Europe. His immediate reply was, "Don't
cancel your factory. We will handle the
protest."
After some time, Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher,
announced "we will give the subsidy to any
machine tool builder that builds an unmanned
factory in the U.K." The protest through out
Europe soon calmed down since no European
machine tool builder was able to build an
unmanned factory such as ours.
In June 1987, our U.K factory began operation.
The amount of subsidy that we received was a
great support for our company.
fter we succeeded in exporting
A our products to the U.S in 1960's,
other Japanese machine tool
builders also began exporting. Around
1985, the U.S depended for 70% of
domestic machine tool demand on
imports from foreign countries. In this
situation, sentiment such as "How can the
U. S. survive a future international
emergency if we depend on machine
tools to be supplied by other countries?"
became widespread and threatened
potential trade conflict. During that time,
U.S administration officials visited the
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
in Japan and made a thorough survey.
They said, "It's not fair that the Japanese
Association of Machine Tool Builders
receives a subsidy from a financial group
that sponsors boat races which is
affiliated with the Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry." We started to limit
the number of machines we exported
ourselves to the U.S. Nevertheless,
because we needed permission from the
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
to export machines, it was actually
regulated by the Japanese government.
Our only hope was our local factory in the
U.S. However, a member of the United
States Trade Representative came to the
Difficulties for Local Production
Kentucky factory, picked up parts one by
one and asked, "where do you make
these parts?" In addition he said, "We do
not consider your machines as local
production if you manufacture most of the
main components in Japan."
Manufacturing main components at an
overseas factory required considerable
capital investment. During that time,
since Japan was in a recession, some
Japanese machine tool builders that had
local factories in the U.S closed their
facilities. However, I was persistent in
staying in the U.S, even though there
were many difficulties in selling machines
to the U.S. market. As a consequence, I
decided to invest in the newest
manufacturing equipment to improve the
percentage of locally manufactured
components.
As the company was highly regarded for
making this decision, the U.S local
corporation was selected by the SME as
one of the ten Very Best U.S
Manufacturing Companies in 1988. The
other ten were famous U.S. companies
such as General Electric, General Motors
and Apple Computer. We were the only
non-American company that received this
award.
1983
U.S. factory in Florence ,
Kentucky
Asahi Shimbun, Mar. 4, 2006
Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9 13
 2006
Teruyuki Yamazaki during
Teruyuki Yamazaki, Chairman, Yamazaki Mazak Corporation, A History of Challenges
interview

1947
Entered Yamazaki Machinery
1963
First Mazak brand machine tool produced
1987
Yamazaki Mazak U.K. factory began operation
owned by his father
Developing
Original Technology
received very good news this year. people laughed at me because they thought my

I We have been able to obtain the best

booth location at this year's IMTS,
plans could not be realized. However, I have
not put all decisions in action in blind panic -
1961
Export of engine
1974
Mazak Corporation（U.S.A.）
2001
Became company
which is one of the three largest machine tool but have done so to survive severe recessions. lathes headquarters moved to new chairman
commenced plant in Florence, Kentucky
shows and is held every 2 years. This show is I have always tried to be profitable even in
held by the AMT, an U.S. organization of recessions and realize a gross margin of
machine tool builders. Although we have been 20%when we are busy. I have not had any debt
one of the leading machine tool companies in in the past 5 years.. I have been profitable for
the world since 1987, this booth location has more than 30 years and have never laid off any
always been given to a U.S. machine tool of my employees.
builder. This shows that we finally have become When I think back about the history of machine
the number one machine tool builder in the tools, the core of machine tool manufacturing
world - both in reality and name. When I took has been moved to Japan from the U.K.,
over this company from my father, I wanted to Germany, and the U.S. The next turn could be
be the number one company in Japan. China. To stay on top of the world, we have to
However, I never thought I could be the number
one in the world.
develop original technology that no other
company can imitate.
1981
1981 Developed world's
My personal motto is "In peace prepare for war." In 2001, Tomohisa, my son, has taken over my first conversational CNC
This proverb can be seen in Confucian classics.
I think the proverb for the machine tool industry
company, and I have become the chairman.
However, I still have the final decision for 1962
for lathes, MAZATROL
T-1 1988
Mazak Corporation, selected
is that we always have to be preparing for a important items such as plant investment. I am Became Flexible Manufacturing by SME as one of the ten
president of Factory（FMF）began Very Best U.S. manufacturing
future recession. The machine tool industry in still full of passion and not yet ready to retire. operation at main plant
company companies in1988.
Japan, which had been struggling in a long in Oguchi, Japan.
recession since the end of the bubble economy,
is now booming. The total sales of the Japanese
machine tool industry in 2005 was $11.7 billion.
This is equal to the record high that was
1968
achieved in the early '90's. However, we have to
always be alert. The machine tool market's 1959
Began manufacture of high
Established Yamazaki
Machinery Corporation
business is very unstable - total sales can be （previous name of Mazak
speed, high precision engine Corporation）in New York
reduced by 50% in just a couple of years. I lathes
have seen many well known machine tool
builders go bankrupt in the past.
As I recall, what made my company reach the
top was aggressive business activity towards
internationalization and automation. Many other

Asahi Shimbun, Mar. 7, 2006

14 Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9 Milestones - Tokai Economics No. 9 15