Domestic Business Activities
More than 95 years have passed since our first president, Koichi Kawai, started making pianos in Hamamatsu in 1927 with seven engineers. Our business has since expanded to include digital and other musical instruments, music classes and other education-related businesses, metal business, coating business, acoustics business, and IT-related business.
Tracing back to our origins, we see that these diversified businesses have all derived from technologies used to create pianos. A single seed planted by Koichi, who wanted to create the world’s best pianos, grew into a shoot, a stem, and a trunk, which in turn sent out branches and leaves. Going forward, we will continue to utilize our accumulated hardware and software to nurture our business as a large tree rooted in the values of the new era.
Business Segments
Musical Instrument Education Business
Making Pianos more Accessible, Popular, Established. (Musical Instruments)This is our origin, our core business. Koichi Kawai’s spirit of trying to make the world's best pianos lives on, as does our high-level design philosophy derived from years of experience and research. In order to bring the joy and richness of the piano to more and more people, we continue to challenge ourselves with our original technological research and insatiable inquisitiveness, to bring groundbreaking, innovative products to the world.
Production and Sales of Musical Instruments
We produce and sell acoustic pianos in Japan and overseas such as the Shigeru Kawai premium grand piano series and upright pianos, as well as digital pianos that utilize our advanced digital technology, and silent hybrid pianos that offer a new piano life.
Aftersales Service
Tuning technicians assigned to sales offices nationwide provide aftersales care of our pianos. Our Master Piano Artisan (MPA) tuning technicians, who have attained the highest levels of skill and sensitivity, meet the high demands of pianists and serve as concert tuners for major international piano competitions around the world.
Other Educational Toys
We use our wealth of expertise in music education and musical instrument manufacturing to develop safe, long-lasting toys that nurture children's emotional growth.
As Many Rich Moments as There Are Adults. (Education Related)
At Kawai, we value children’s budding interests, and have developed various educational activities centered around music education in order to nurture their ability to express themselves openly. Also, in response to society’s growing appetite for lifelong learning, we have opened music schools for adults throughout Japan, offering a wide variety of courses.
Kawai Music School
Kawai Music School was established in 1956. Now we have more than 4,000 schools nationwide with over 100,000 students. We promote music education activities that meet the needs of today, utilizing our long-standing expertise in music school management and the latest music education research. With a wide range of courses created from Kawai's experience in music education, our many students have become more familiar with music and unlocked their own potential.
Kawai English School
Students follow the IMA (Imagination, Music, Action) curriculum developed by Kawai, learning living English while enjoying songs and games with instructors who have a rich sense of humanity.We also encourage students to understand the culture behind the language to become truly cosmopolitan individuals.
Kawai Drawing and Modelling School
We nurture and enrich children's originality and creativity in abundance, by focusing on individual differences and processes rather than uniform instruction. Children can freely engage in creative activities using a wide variety of materials such as paper, clay, and Kawai's unique wooden pieces from pianos.
Kawai Physical Education Schools
Since its establishment in 1967, the school has conducted a wide variety of physical education based on the theme of "harmony of body and mind". We offer two-year-old courses, infants and children’s courses, sports courses (artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, soccer, swimming), and a health service that supports health development based on the concept of lifelong physical education.
Kawai Music Competition
This traditional competition was launched in 1968, producing many performers from past winners of national competitions. Today, it has grown to become one of Japan's leading student competitions, with a total of more than 20,000 participants each year.
Publishing Business
In the field of music and art, we publish musical scores, music books, theory books, music education and lifelong learning materials, music therapy books, children’s picture books, art books, and more. In addition, we are taking measures to promote the distribution of musical works and prevent them from going out of print by supplying made-to-order musical score and selling downloadable electronic musical scores, both enabled by recent advances in IT.
Music Software
We have developed and marketed software for various music genres, primarily Score Maker, our musical score recognition and creation software that allows the user to scan and play musical score. Our iOS apps such as Touch Notation and Onpu Note are also very popular in the general and school markets.
Physical Education Equipment and Health & Fitness Equipment
We offer a diverse lineup of products that respond to growing health consciousness in society, from school sports equipment such as ping-pong tables and vaulting boxes to training and fitness equipment.
Material Processing Business
Utilizing our accumulated technology, we are developing new businesses to meet the needs of the times.We have developed a range of distinct businesses by taking advantage of the technology cultivated in our piano business. Among these, our "materials processing business", which consists of the three businesses of metals, coating, and acoustics, is a major pillar of our operations.
Metals Business
Our unparalleled precision irregular shaped rolling technology, born from our organ reed processing rationalization technology, has earned us the reputation of being the world’s No.1 as a pioneer in the field.Kawai Seimitsu Kinzoku Corporation was established in 1980 to develop this technology.
Precision-rolled irregular-shaped sheets started out as semiconductor and connector materials, primarily lead frames for power transistors, but in recent years, they have been used in certain automotive parts and are now one of the indispensable materials in society.
Coating Business
The interior panels for high-grade automobiles that we started to produce in 1989 resulted from our piano mirror-coating technology. Kawai Hyperwood Co., Ltd. was established in 1998, and has been constantly working on improvement activities and developing various decorative products based on the strength of our coating technologies cultivated over the years.
Acoustics Business
In 1982, we started to introduce soundproof rooms in Kawai Music Schools nationwide.Based on the expertise gained from this work, the following year, 1983, we began selling unit-type soundproof rooms (current name: Nassar). Kawai Acoustic System Co., Ltd., was established in 1989 to manufacture and sell soundproof rooms, and has developed into a business that provides ideal acoustic spaces, including soundproof rooms for musical instruments and soundproof and inspection rooms for research facilities.
Other Business
Opening Up New Possibilities.
IT-Related Business
Since 1965, we have been introducing computers to our piano pre-order operations, accumulating expertise as an IBM user over the years. We established Kawai Business Software in 1985, and as an IBM business partner, we have cultivated our unique expertise in IT utilization technology based on our extensive experience in system development with our customers.
From system development support to hardware installation support, our total solutions, which are always proposed from the user's point of view, have been favorably received by our many customers. Of course, we strive to improve customer satisfaction in our day-to-day activities by providing consistent support from both hardware and software perspectives, including system consulting, education and training, system maintenance, and more.
Finance-Related Business
KAWAI provides money collection services using the expertise gained from managing Kawai Music Schools. We collect various kinds of payments on behalf of customers, such as monthly tuition fees for cram schools and sports schools, apartment rent, and various membership fees.
Insurance Agency Business
As an in-house insurance agent, we offer better insurance plans covering various risks in daily life and corporate activities, through non-life and life insurance.
