雅馬哈究竟有多"不務正業"?

Yamaha has grown to become the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments (including pianos, "silent" pianos, drums, guitars, brass instruments, woodwinds, violins, violas, celli, and vibraphones), as well as a leading manufacturer of semiconductors, audio/visual, computer related products, sporting goods, home appliances, specialty metals and industrial robots.

雅馬哈已經成爲世界上最大的樂器製造商（包括鋼琴、“無聲”鋼琴、鼓、吉他、銅管樂器、木管樂器、小提琴、中提琴、大提琴和電顫琴），同時也是半導體、視聽、計算機相關產品、體育用品、家用電器、特種金屬和工業機器人等領域的領先製造商。

Yamaha Corporation was established in 1887 as a piano and reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu Yamaha in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture and was incorporated on October 12, 1897. The company's origins as a musical instrument manufacturer are still reflected today in the group's logo—a trio of interlocking tuning forks.

雅馬哈公司由靜岡縣濱松市的山葉寅楠於1887年成立，最初是一家鋼琴和簧片風琴製造商，於1897年10月12日正式註冊成立。該公司的品牌標誌是由三個音叉組合而成，也表明其前身就是一家樂器製造商。

After World War II, company president Genichi Kawakami repurposed the remains of the company's war-time production machinery and the company's expertise in metallurgical technologies to the manufacture of motorcycles. The YA-1 (AKA Akatombo, the "Red Dragonfly"), of which 125 were built in the first year of production (1954), was named in honour of the founder. It was a 125cc, single cylinder, two-stroke, street bike patterned after the German DKW RT125 (which the British munitions firm, BSA, had also copied in the post-war era and manufactured as the Bantam and Harley-Davidson as the Hummer). In 1955, the success of the YA-1 resulted in the founding of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., splitting the motorcycle division from the company.

第二次世界大戰後，總裁川上健一（Genichi Kawakami）將戰時公司機械生產的殘骸和在冶金技術方面的專業知識重新用於摩托車製造。YA-1（又名Akatombo，簡稱“紅蜻蜓”）在創建的第一年（1954年）就被建造了125架，以其創始人的名字命名。這是一輛仿照德國DKW RT125（戰後時代，英國軍火公司BSA也仿製過這款車，並生產出奔騰以及哈雷悍馬）的125 cc單缸二衝程的街車。1955年，YA-1的成功推動了了雅馬哈摩托車有限公司的成立，標誌着其摩托車部門從公司單獨拆分出來。

Also, in 1954 the Yamaha Music School was founded.

此外，在1954年雅馬哈音樂學校成立。

Yamaha made the first commercially successful digital synthesizer, the Yamaha DX7, in 1983.

1983年，雅馬哈製造出了第一輛成功的商用數字合成器——雅馬哈 DX7。

In 1988, Yamaha shipped the world's first CD recorder. Yamaha purchased Sequential Circuits in 1988. It bought a majority stake (51%) of competitor Korg in 1987, which was bought out by Korg in 1993.

1988年，雅馬哈推出了世界上第一臺 CD 刻錄機，在1988年收購了時序電路。 它還在1987年收購了競爭對手 Korg 的多數股權（51%），但Korg在1993年贖回了股權。

In the late 1990s, Yamaha released a series of portable battery operated keyboards under the PSS and the PSR range of keyboards. The Yamaha PSS-14 and PSS-15 keyboards were upgrades to the Yamaha PSS-7 and were notable for their short demo songs, short selectable phrases, funny sound effects and distortion and crackly sounds progressing on many volume levels when battery power is low.

在20世紀90年代末，雅馬哈推出了一系列便攜式電池操作下的 PSS 和 PSR 範圍的鍵盤。雅馬哈 PSS-14和 PSS-15鍵盤是對 PSS-7的升級，以其簡短的演示歌曲和可選操作、有趣的聲音效果以及電池電量低時發出的爆裂聲音而著稱。

In 2002, Yamaha closed down its archery product business that was started in 1959. Six archers in five different Olympic Games won gold medals using their products. It acquired German audio software manufacturer Steinberg in January 2005, from Pinnacle Systems.

2002年，雅馬哈取消了始於1959年的射箭產品業務。五屆奧運會的六名射箭運動員使用他們的產品贏得了金牌。它在2005年1月從 Pinnacle 系統公司收購了德國音頻軟件製造商 Steinberg。

In July, 2007, Yamaha bought out the minority shareholding of the Kemble family in Yamaha-Kemble Music (UK) Ltd, Yamaha's UK import and musical instrument and professional audio equipment sales arm, the company being renamed Yamaha Music U.K. Ltd in autumn 2007. Kemble and Co. Ltd, the UK piano sales and manufacturing arm was unaffected.

2007年7月，雅馬哈收購了肯鮑家族在雅馬哈—肯鮑音樂(英國)有限公司、雅馬哈英國進口樂器及專業音響設備銷售部門的少數股權，並於2007年秋更名爲雅馬哈音樂英國有限公司。英國鋼琴銷售和製造部門肯鮑有限公司沒有受到影響。

On December 20, 2007, Yamaha made an agreement with the Austrian Bank BAWAG P.S.K. Group BAWAG to purchase all the shares of Bosendorfer, intended to take place in early 2008. Yamaha intends to continue manufacturing at the Bosendorfer facilities in Austria. The acquisition of Bosendorfer was announced after the NAMM Show in Los Angeles, on January 28, 2008. As of February 1, 2008, Bosendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH operates as a subsidiary of Yamaha Corp.

2007年12月20日，雅馬哈與奧地利貝森朵夫鋼琴廠達成意向，計劃在2008年初收購貝森朵夫所有股份。雅馬哈打算繼續使用奧地利貝森朵夫的設備生產。2008年1月28日，在洛杉磯舉辦美國國際音樂製品展覽會之後，宣佈收購貝森朵夫鋼琴廠。 截至2008年2月1日，貝森朵夫鋼琴廠已成爲雅馬哈集團的子公司之一。

Yamaha Corporation is also widely known for their music teaching programme that began in the 1950s.

雅馬哈株式會社的音樂教學項目始於20世紀50年代，此後便廣爲人知。

Yamaha electronics have proven to be successful, popular and respected products. For example, the Yamaha YPG-625 was awarded "Keyboard of the Year" and "Product of the Year" in 2007 from The Music and Sound Retailer magazine. Other noteworthy Yamaha electronics include the SHS-10 Keytar, a consumer-priced keytar which offered MIDI output features normally found on much more expensive keyboards.

事實證明雅馬哈電子產品是成功的、流行的並且深受消費者歡迎。例如，雅馬哈YPG-625在2007年被《音樂與聲音零售商》雜誌評爲“年度鍵盤”和“年度產品”。雅馬哈旗下其他值得一提的電子產品還包括SHS-10 Keytar，這是一種爲消費者提供MIDI輸出功能的價格昂貴的鍵盤。