Yamaha, an ambitious giant

When it was announced that the aircraft was about to land, the curiosity I had felt for several weeks over my forthcoming visit to Japan overcame all feelings of tiredness. From 30,000 feet I strained my eyes in vain to catch a first glimpse of the emerging land whose jagged outline resembled the debris of a shipwreck. Soon after that, the warm and attentive welcome of my hosts at Narita international airport. This was the beginning of a ten-day visit, perfectly organised by the management of this giant firm. The aim was to give me a balanced picture of Japan and of the Yamaha reality in the international “line-up” of the music industry.

The stories we hear in the west about Yamaha musical instruments are very persistent. It’s Japanese, people say, meaning that it is a mediocre product.

For some years now, however, a trend has been developing in professional circles: great virtuosos and soloists of repute recognise objectively that Yamaha is making a considerable effort to establish its quality. The task of the Japanese giant is all the harder because it has to fight on two fronts — the technology of instrument making itself (the legitimate fight) and the establishing of a reputation.

Yoshihiro Kaji, surrounded by a team, busies himself around us, looking after luggage, transport etc. Throughout my stay I was to benefit from his constant, absolute and liberating assistance. This team, “wasting” its time with me, is part of the collective “brain” which runs the wind instrument division of Nippon Gakki (the firm’s commercial name). Apart from their handling of computers, brass, and brass instruments, these engineers are strikingly polite and respectful. On the evening of my arrival I was invited — having expressed some interest in the matter — to a traditional meal, a Sukiyati. That was when I really felt the shock which the rituals of another culture can produce.

Unlike western civilisation which regenerates itself, or degenerates, on its own foundations, Japan has, for almost a century, been striving to initiate herself into the technology of a society fundamentally different from her own. And she has shown a phenomenal capacity to absorb it¹.

For decades the Japanese have persisted in their long journey westwards with the aim of completing this process of osmosis while at the same time preserving their social, religious and spiritual culture which people elsewhere, for their part, have great difficulty in understanding (for example: the almost family-like structure of businesses where faithfulness is the rule, total submission to the hierarchy, etc.).