The Japanese were very interested in breaking into the electronic synthesizer market. The two companies with the richest history are Yamaha and Korg. Yamaha became famous for producing reliable polyphonic synthesizers in the mid-1970s. They were quite large and heavy by today's standards but during this era they were among the best polyphonic synthesizers produced. DCS series was their most popular line of polyphonic synthesizers during his era. The CS 80 was perhaps their most popular model. I actually own a CS 60 myself. All these keyboards actually look very similar. There are a number of colorful buttons in the middle there used to select the sounds, and a number of toggle switches to change filters and other settings. One of the very unique features of these keyboards is a finger activated slighter that allows you to change pitch. I see few keyboards today if any that use this feature. For the time it was a very good idea. I'm not sure whether or not he was Yamaha they came up with this idea, but it was a very clever one.

Korg is an interesting company because recently they have been doing something very similar to Moog. They started reproducing some of the popular keyboards from their past. Particularly the MS10 and the MS20. These are very attractive looking keyboards that look similar to that Minimoog. However it is lighter and smaller. Korg also played around a lot with vocorders. These are devices that allow you to synthesize your own voice. Their famous model is the VC-10. This keyboard looked very similar to the MS 10.

The 1980s and beyond were a very rich and very time for Korg. They're Korg M1 became one of the most popular keyboards of the late 1980s. It still holds up today. It marks the beginning of a whole new generation of digital keyboards. Korg is not only involved in keyboards, they have produced a number of electronic devices and titles for guitar players.

There are countless other Japanese manufacturers of note, and I will be sure to add more articles as time comes. Thank you for reading.