Yamaha Corporation of Japan
Yuji Tanaka is a Senior Executive Officer for Roland Corporation who has enjoyed a successful career in the music products industry. Yuji provided detail about how and why he came to work in the industry during his NAMM interview. He spoke about the innovations he has witnessed throughout the years...
Takashi Yamazaki developed a passion for music at an early age. He played guitar and piano and was encouraged by music teachers, which became an inspiration for him in starting his chain of 50 music schools in Japan. In addition, Yamazaki-San opened a music retail store, which grew into five...
Gerry Labelle’s first musical instrument was the alto saxophone; later the tenor and soprano saxophone remained his main instruments, and he later played C Flute, piccolo & Alto flute. Gerry studied music with Frank Mella in Montreal, Canada. He has traveled across Canada and the United States...
Keisuke Kobayashi is the Director and Chief Marketing Officer for Audio-Technica in Japan. His long and very interesting career in the music products industry started when he began working for Yamaha in the 1970s. The company asked if Keisuke-san would travel to the United States as a management...
Takeshi Inomata is the noted jazz drummer who, among other things, helped design the first percussive instruments for Yamaha. His work with Yamaha took place during the early 1960s when the company began providing drum and percussive instruments and accessories. It was a contribution Takeshi was...
Motohichi Harada led the movement that brought the very first marching band to Japan, which took place in 1963. He has since worked for the NHK for over thirty years and formed the Japan Marching Band Directors Association in 1971 and the Japan Marching Band Association the following year. Both...
Akio Hiyoshi was on the engineering team at Yamaha in 1959 that designed the Electone Organ, which brought the small piano manufacturer into the electronic musical instrument market, where they would become dominant for decades. The team also worked on the Clavinova, the CS 80 (Yamaha's last...
Mitsuo Kasahara served as the first president of Yamaha Corporation of America after setting up the branch office in Southern California in 1961. Three years earlier he established the first Yamaha office in Mexico as well! These were the first branches in North America, which led to a period of...
Hirokazu Kato took part in the innovative engineering team at Yamaha in Japan who utilized FM Synthesis to create an electronic musical instrument, first the TRX prototype and then the revolutionary DX7. Kato-san began his career with Yamaha in 1965 when he helped design the company's first...
Yoshi Kobayashi began working for Yamaha Corporation of America in 1958. In the early days of his career he was tasked with supervising the import and export of the motorcycle division. As the musical instrument side of the company grew and expanded into the United States, Yoshi-san was placed in...