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Hi-
An instrument repairman in NY State told me recently he had heard that Yamaha has moved all musical instrument manufacturing -both student And pro lines-out of Japan --to Taiwan/China. Is this true?
Mark

No, this is not true. Source is directly from a Yamaha US employee.

I just saw a bunch of pictures from one of Yamaha's US Representatives of him touring several factories in Japan last week, so there is no truth to that rumor. However...

Yamaha operates very differently from other manufacturers. At Conn-Selmer, one factory does all aspects of constructing an instrument: from making individual components to final assembly. Yamaha doesn't do this, as their component factories are in different locations than their assembly plants. This originally started when they had the assembly plant in Grand Rapids, but they have continued that concept.

Even if the final assembly point is in Japan, it's more than likely that many of the components were made in either China or Indonesia. Hope this helps!

I deal with a lot of Yamaha at my school...

My understanding is that anything under the 400 sereies is not made in Japan.