Town factory challenge: The birth of a luxury analog record player with the cover of a specialized magazine

Many cars, space rockets, precision equipment, industrial robots ... many of the world's proud Japanese industrial products are supported by small town factories that have been supplied with excellent parts in the past and now.Yuki Seimitsu (Chigasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture), one of the town factories that is based on such parts processing, has challenged the development of a luxury analog record player with little contact with his main business.Then, the finished product attracts the attention of the audio enthusiast, and finally decorates the cover of an audio magazine.What was the background of the challenge?We talked to the company's president Jun Nagamatsu.

Projects started to improve employee morale

Analog record player AP-0 Photo: Yuki-accuracy provision

With the popularity of analog records, the analog record player "AP-0", which has begun to accept reservations in June 2020, has become a hot topic among audio lovers.The AP-0 with a price of 2 million yen excluding tax is a high-end analog player that makes critics groan.It is worth noting that it was a town factory "Yuki -accent", which has been developed without acoustic equipment.Why did the company, which has been working on precision parts in the tip field, such as aerospace business and medical care, jumped into an unknown field of sound?Jun Nagamatsu, the current president, led the development of AP-0."Since we are paying the parts and equipment that we received from customers, we have never released Yuki -accurate products. So I want to have our own original products that can appeal to our design and processing power.I had a long time ago. I wanted employees to have a great deal of confidence by sending them to the world, "but I didn't try to make an analog player from the beginning."I used to be in a semiconductor manufacturing device company, so I tried to create a product in BtoB (abbreviation for Business to Business, a business model in which companies provide things and services to companies).However, somehow the employees were so bad that they didn't progress as they wanted. "As he repeats himself, Nagamatsu notices what is lacking in the project."It's a calorie. Even though I'm going to explain to the employees so hard, I didn't really want it, so I didn't have enough heat. I can't move the employee's feelings."