@Gargron Motorcycles are music instruments too, no surprise here.

P.S. I'm a rider. 😎

@Gargron my earbuds, tablet, phone, printer, blu-ray player, TV, fridge, washer, and dryer are all Samsung

@Gargron Yeah, the Japanese are fairly big on diversification of large businesses. Toyota and Mitsubishi have their fingers in all sorts of things too.

@Gargron This got me reading about Mitsubishi because I thought it was similar, but apparently Mitsubishi is not a single company, but a group of companies that all own each other, with no single parent. TIL

@Gargron https://www.theonion.com/yamaha-ceo-pleased-with-current-production-of-jet-skis-1819570984

@Gargron Whenever our Kenwood blender malfunctions I shout "can't they stick to car radioes?"

@Gargron one day Apple going build a car...

@gargron Yamaha also makes serious industrial equipment for electronic manufacturing, once state-of-the-art. These days Samsung is probably better at it, though...

@Gargron What if the motorcycles had an ability to play the piano while you're parked?

@Gargron iirc it's like two different companies under the Yamaha name, but they're still closely linked and do events together?

You tend to get weird ranges of stuff with Asian companies, just look at Samsung.

@Gargron nah makes sense. Ever ridden a well-tuned motorcycle down a winding country road on a warm Spring afternoon? Same feeling as playing a tricky concerto on the violin (Yamaha also make violins).

@Gargron as well as some fine turntables and amps.

@Gargron they also do sporting goods, semiconductors, and a few other things. The post-war period In Japan birthed a lot of the keiretsu conglomerates that paved the model for multi pillar businesses that continue to this day, which is also been repeated in places like Korea with chaebol companies like Samsung, Daewoo and Hyundai.