Yamaha Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate based in Japan with a wide range of products and services, predominantly musical instruments, electronics and power sports equipment. It is one of the components of Nikkei 225 and is the largest piano manufacturing company in the world. The former division of the motorcycle became independent from the main company in 1955, forming Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, although Yamaha Corporation remains the largest shareholder.
Yamaha was established in 1887 as a piano and reed organ maker by Torakusu Yamaha as Nippon Gakki Company, Limited in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture and was incorporated on October 12, 1897. The origins of the company as a musical instrument manufacturer Are still reflected today in the group Logo-a trio of interlocking hairpins.
After World War II, company president Genichi Kawakami reused the remains of the company's production machinery and the company's experience in metallurgical technologies for the manufacture of motorcycles. The YA-1 (AKA Akatombo, the "Red Dragon"), of which 125 were built in the first year of production (1954), was named in honor of the founder. It was a 125cc, single cylinder, two-stroke, based on the German model DKW RT125 (which the British ammunition BSA had also copied in the postwar era and manufactured as the Bantam and Harley-Davidson as Hummer) . In 1955, the success of the YA-1 led to the founding of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.
Yamaha has grown to become the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments (including pianos, "silent" pianos, drums, guitars, metal instruments, winds, violins, violas, celli and vibrators) as well as a leading manufacturer of audio semiconductors / Visuals, computer products, sporting goods, household appliances, special metals and industrial robots.
