Yamaha’s been doing pianos a lot longer than the other things.
There is a reason their logo is three tuning forks.
Yep, Pianos since 1900 (they were found in 1897) and bikes since 1955. Source
Nobody does everything like a Japanese company.
Fun fact: Sony makes most of its money selling life insurance policies in Japan.
PlayStation is just a side project.
How is this possible? This goes against the laws of capitalism
It totally doesn’t. It’s even called Capitalism as a nod to the fact you need a shit load of money (capital) to start a business - and to become notable.
So companies and people who are already successful or already backed by wealthy interests automatically have a leg up and a head start under CAPITALism.
lol .ml user, of course
Are you thinking of anti-monopoly laws of the state?
South Korea would like a word
Their economy is pretty much based on Samsung
I sold the E to them, they’re Samesung now.
Just like that you’re going to go on the internet and admit to dealing E. Under your real name no less!
Samsung’s like 20% of their GDP, completely bonkers
20% of their market value, 15% of their economy, Hyundai and Kia (which aren’t the same company on paper only) are the other two giants with SK not too far behind them, all of them together must be about a third of Korea’s economy…
I know there’s Hyundai heavy industry. Is there Kia heavy industry?
No but the cars are basically the same (same platform, engines, software…) so Kia’s numbers should be counted as part of Hyundai’s
Smasnug?
Fun fact: Sony makes most of its money selling life insurance policies in Japan.
And samsung makes most of its money selling shipping containers
And Hyundai makes ships and tanks among other things.
Hitachi makes heavy machinery and my wife’s favorite back massager
/*grabs a screwdriver and a flash drive and runs to nearest korean tank */
Honda makes cars, motorcycles, and checks notes a humanoid robot?
My first computer, back in 84 or so, was a Hyundai.
If you want to talk weird computer brands you can’t beat Tandy. Unlike everyone else here Tandy has only ever sold two things: leather and leatherworking equipment, and personal computers. No heavy machinery, no transitional products. No, this leather company decided that personal computers were the next big thing and that they were the people to sell them.
I never realized Tandy computers and Tandy leather were the same company.
The money you paid for it back then provided that vital funds which drove the company to turn into a global conglomerate it is today!
EDIT: You just reminded me my first CD-ROM drive was made by Hyundai!
It was unknowingly. The computer was branded as Blue Chip, but inside everything was labeled Hyundai. I got curious and peeled the label off the front, underneath was a Hyundai label. I never looked into if blue chip was a local company rebranding, or if it was legit part of Hyundai.
It’s not Sony, it’s Prudential. They’re sold under Sony’s name, but they only get a fraction of what Prudential get.
Aren’t corporate structures fun‽
Isn’t corporate structures really, but brand value. Like Nestlé, paying Starbucks to sell Nestlé coffee branded as Starbucks, Prudential pays Sony to sell Prudential life insurance with the Sony brand.
Remington makes bullets, knives, guns, razor blades, motors all sorta random crap. It’s a old company diversifying thing not a nation specific thing.
I’d suggest reading into the Keiretsu Corporations that the US supported during the occupation era. In short, the US had a pretty big interest in creating a series of companies more powerful than the government (sound familiar), because they’d be more loyal to the US (AKA: “Capitalism, The Country”). Keiretsu follows some uniquely Japanese concepts like interdependence and societal betterment that you don’t really see affecting many western companies
Are they anything like Saudi Aramco?
Not necessarily although I hadn’t heard of Saudi Aramco until your comment.
In western terms, the Keiretsu combined vertical and horizontal integration; only a handful of companies owned almost every level of production and had “gentleman’s agreements” to avoid heavy competition with one-another. What makes the Keiretsu unique is that the companies were chosen and consolidated by the US government and structured to be sympathetic to America and unlikely to rebuild the Imperial Army. Former fighter plane manufacturers were made into electric keyboard makers, rifle companies became borers for motors for small cars, etc. It’s why you get scenarios like the OP meme
So Sony makes cameras, games consoles and also is an insurance company.
Samsung makes phones, TVs and military tech. Hitachi makes diggers and vibrators.
And Disney makes movies, theme parks and offer hitman services.
hope the last one will never come true
Honeywell makes barcode scanners and nuclear bombs.
I think they make thermostats and thermal pads too
Disney ruined the Hitman industry. There used to be hundreds of small, Mom and Pop assassin bureau’s that maybe didn’t always succeed in killing the target but you could tell they cared about ending people’s lives. They put heart and soul into the assassination business. But now Disney has googled all of them up and it’s just one cookie cutter hit after another. No creativity, no imagination. They pretty much just walk up to their targets in broad daylight then use the Disney lawyers on the back end if anyone tries to stop them. I sure miss the good old days.
They was a joke. I don’t think Disney is running an assassin business, they’re not Boeing.
Sears kinda used to be like that in the U.S.
Craftsman, the tool brand, was an in-house brand for Sears, along with Kenmore appliances, Die Hard batteries, Land’s End clothing, etc.
But the whole reason why there is a style of house called Craftsman homes is because Sears used to sell house kits as huge Ikea-style pre-cut lumber to be assembled on site according to their instructions.
Sears also sold insurance under its Allstate insurance subsidiary, houses under its Coldwell Banker real estate brokerage, and all sorts of consumer finance through its Discover card.
Costco and Kirkland. Though I imagine Sears and co had to actually manufacture that stuff. Kirkland is probably rebranded Chinese stuff. (If you order enough, the Chinese company will put whatever brand sticker you want on it. You can have booly TVs if you order ten thousand.)
Mitsubishi makes everything from pens to nuclear power plants.
Once upon a time I had a Mitsubishi car and a Mitsubishi can of corn. I thought that was weird.
I’m sitting at my desk rn looking at my Mitsubishi VCR
Mitsubishi even manufactured carrier based fighters (aka the Zeros) for the Japanese Imperial Navy, for the Pacific Theater of World War II.
A.k.a. the suicide planes.
Still probably safer than the German Ferdinand and Elefant tanks, which sometimes exploded because of incline, overheat, or just cause. With all those factors considered they were deployed to Italy. Fucking petrol electic engine.
Nah, those were made by the Yokosuka arsenal.
They didn’t need to test landing those.
Peugeot is a fun one too, from saw blades to petticoats to bicycles to pepper grinders to championship winning rally cars
Peugeot is what you get if adhd was a company.
Hitachi:
Love it when I can buy personal massage devices and heavy earth moving machinery from the same place
They’re both known for making the earth shake.
Both useful for… YOUR MOM!
Oh BURN!
They also pioneered the perpendicular bit on spinning hard drives
Aren’t those the same thing?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaibatsu for those interested in why this happens.
Well now I gotta got dig up GTA2.
Ah yes, the Japanese oligarchy.
They started with musical instruments. First one should have been " i guess we’re doing engines now"
So did Suzuki. My Viola music books were from Suzuki when I first learned to play.
Yamaha really knows how to do wood.
Yamaha’s got wood!
I had a Yamaha flute and it was very good
They do decent guitars as well
They make pretty reliable trombones, too.
And this one time at Yamahband Camp.
Same. Had a recorder
Their logo is three tuning forks, after all
My first instrument was an electric Yamaha bass guitar.
It was a beautiful beast.
Yamaha makes nice basses, no doubt about that. I’d love to own a vintage BB series bass someday.
The logo has three crossed tuning forks.
Does anyone have the template for this?
I have so many memes I can make with it.
I don’t have it on hand but search “i guess we doin” and you should find it
Yamaha also makes Trumpets (the music instrument)
What other type of trumpets are there besides the music variety?
Flower
An assistive listening device, a road interchange, a series of satellites, a news magazine, an ice cream cone, and some other stuff.
Wow
I totally would have thought of one of those. Good thing we clarified.
You don’t have a computer trumpet?
Also guitars and basses. And mixing consoles.
Yamaha makes lots of other musical instruments too.
The thing that puzzles me is that the Yamaha logo, 3 tuning forks, makes sense for instruments that you tune. But I’ve only seen it on their motorbikes.
It’s to show they also make instruments. This speaks for itself when you buy one of their instruments.
I’ve seen their logo on pianos and synths though.
the headstocks on their guitars are just the 3 tuning forks, AFAIK they don’t say “yamaha”
See what you mean: the Yamaha Revstar doesn’t have Yamaha on the headstock, but does have the tuning forks.
But other Yamahas don’t have the tuning forks but do say Yamaha. Eg. https://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses/el_guitars/sg/index.html
I think there was a period, pre Revstar, when motorbikes had the tuning forks but none of the Yamaha guitars did.
Synthesizers, too.
And I guess good ones too. They are one of the three brands that are acceptable to my son’s music teacher.
On a side note this is so weird. I just got done trying to explain to him why we are going to rent one of the brands his teacher strongly recommends instead of just using the cheap one we have. Then this is the first thing I see.
Yep I had a cheap no-name trumpet, it rested for a few years in the basement without proper maintenance. One of its 3 buttons was not press-able any longer ~ rusted shut or something. Meanwhile the Yamaha still worked, well oiled and all. Lesson: always unscrew the buttons of your trumpet & Yamaha Buttons do not rust that fast I guess…
Diversification can be good business for some
I’m a real man… I’m going to work at Hitachi making large heavy construction equipment… Like cranes and back loaders… Wait what do you mean “personal massager department”???
Hilariously, not 5 min ago I was laid up in pain from a horrible cramp running up the side of my ankle, preventing me from walking for a moment. And I was thinking “damn I need a massager right now” and was laughing about just buying a Hitachi for it.
I bought one for my wife thinking we’d use it to lazily pump out orgasms, but 90% of its usage ended up on my shoulders and back. That was their original intention after all. They rebranded it to distance the Hitachi name from sex stuff, because that’s what everyone thinks it’s intended for now.
Anyway, go for the wireless one.
Do you have any suggestions?
I’d just get a real one - “Magic Wand Original” or the rechargeable version. There are a lot of fakes, so I’d avoid any counterfeit that tries to look real, or just get an altogether different massager. Go for a reputable authorized retailer like Adam and Eve or Good Vibrations.
It melts certain types of headaches too. And yes, you can use it on your dick.
I hear they have a wand that is magical…
I bought a different brand of massager, for massaging, and it works really well for loosening tight muscles and easing pain. Highly recommend getting one.
It did come with some attachments that seem tailored to groin muscles, but those can live in the junk drawer.
And yes, everyone who sees it in my house makes a joke about using it to whack-off, but I have no problem with that.
We haven’t even gotten into their swimming pool division yet.
Can’t wait for them to start mixing and matching products together. I wanna combination electric keyboard dirt bike.
What about Hitachi?
Ah yes, Hitachi Station: the purveyor of power converters.
“back” “massagers”
Yamaha built music sirens back in the 1950s as well. Since the Japanese public wanted to forget about the horrors of WW2, Yamaha sought to repurpose the common mechanical air raid siren into a musical device since loudspeakers weren’t a common thing yet. 4-10 electromechanical sirens representing each note of a scale were driven on a single driveshaft and each siren had an electromagnetic shutter that would open and close the ports where sound is emitted to play or silence the notes. A handful still survive and operate, though they’re sadly dwindling as Yamaha ceased supporting them a few decades ago.
Tour of a first generation music siren, siren activates at 4:46
The music sirens almost sound like bagpipes, which actually makes sense. Pipes are meant to be loud as hell and bounce off of mountainous terrain hence their favoring in highlandic cultures from Brittain to Anatolia, while air raid sirens are meant to be loud as fuck cause that means somebody is about to drop a lot of explosives, fire, or a sun on ya.
Huh, that’s actually kinda cool.
Speaking of Japanese economic recovery post-WWII, Sony also has a wild story. Operating out of a derelict apartment store, they used to run a radio repair shop and make Rice Cookers (quite poorly I might add).
Then they got permission from some electronic transistor patent holders to fabricate their own semiconductors and created things such as megaphones, tape recorders, and eventually radios. Cheap Japanese transistor radios became a huge export.
Now they make stereos, headphones, cameras, televisions, 4k rectal endoscopes, printers, etc.
You had to slide that endoscope in there, did you?
Somebody has to do it.
