the social media "please oppose the tariff on band instruments" jazz

[bloke]

When a Japanese company is already getting its dealers to sell Chinese beginner trumpets to hapless and ignoramus parents for 1500 bucks, what the hell difference is a big tariff charge going to make?

Those incurious consumers are just going to pay it, because they're too lazy and/or gullible to spend the time to figure out the game that's being played on them.

... so what difference does it make?

[catgrowlB]

From what I understand, Yamaha brass made in the China factory are made in Yamaha's own factory -- they are made in a factory controlled and overseen by Yamaha itself.
They aren't farmed out and made in the Jinbao or Eastman facilities and just have the Yamaha label engraved on them or anything like that...

I think Yamaha has had a factory there in China since the late 1990s. The beginner, intermediate, and marching brass are all made there. I believe only the 'Professional' and 'Custom' models are made at the facility in Japan.

As for tariffs and whatnot....
I think the whole thing is ridiculous and stupid, just like any wars we get involved with. I'll just leave it at that ...

[bloke]

I don't get your point, unless you think that Yamaha instruments made in China are the only instruments made in China that are exceedingly high quality.

They are made in China, so they (sole purpose of being made there) can be built less expensively, yes?
Otherwise, wouldn't they be made in Japan... or maybe even in the USA - to avoid tariffs?
Does any entity other than the People's Republic of China really own anything in the People's Republic of China? (referring to the Japanese company having their own factory in China). The minute it wasn't beneficial for China to allow that Japanese company to build instruments there, I'm pretty sure they'd be shooed off.

JP sells knockoffs of the Japanese brand marching brass. I can go over the ways in which the JP knockoffs are superior in construction (pistons, carry cases, water keys, briefly) - while being completely equal in fit and finish, but probably most people would (or do, as they're reading this) think that I was just politicking or carnival barking for the brand that I sell.

Additionally, not enough people have bought JP's $4XX entry level trumpet and trombone to understand how equivalent they are in build quality to the Japan-brand Chinese $1500 stuff...
Also, having not worked on any of this stuff, they haven't experienced the build quality up close and personal.

Finally, there's a natural human tendency to believe that something is better when more funds are sacrificed to acquire that thing (whether or not it's actually better or possibly not as good), and there's been an awful lot of money spent on brand recognition, hasn't there? Even though equivalent or better products can be acquired for half the price or less, band directors (read,: our taxes) acquire this double and triple priced stuff, simply due to brand recognition... and the super high priced Japan/Chinese products are not without issues. (I could list some, but I believe other repair people are familiar with them as well.)

There are other very high quality products made in China that aren't Japanese brand. I'm using JP as an example, because I'm familiar with the products. The factory that westerners know as "wisemann" is manufacturing a lot of stuff in China for the Buffet Company. Those products are equal in build quality to similar products made in Europe, though Buffet is able to sell them at a lower price (whereas the entry level Chinese/Japan brand trumpet and trombone continue to sport $1,500 hang tags). The entry level plastic Japan brand clarinets (I don't know about currently...) had been made in a third world country (not China) and also were not bargain priced.
We have saxophone-playing band directors asking us for YAS-23 (Japan made) alto saxophones while eschewing the currently offered YAS-26/"Advantage". (The fact that we're selling them for way under $1,000 used obviously adds to their appeal.). We still have some left, but we've gone through a ton of them touching up the lacquer on these older instruments and partially or completely re-padding them for sale. Of course, the old heavily gold tinted lacquer "Vito" models were also Japan YAS-23 instruments, so we are going through those as well and those are also leaving the shop towards schools where there are saxophone-playing band directors.
Yes... JP makes a remarkably in-tune alto saxophone, but it's their "model up", and we have to sell it for about $1,200 or so (new). The model up JP alto is one of the few models of alto saxophones we've encountered at an accessible price whereby the octave D's are really close to in tune with each other.

[tofu]

Does any entity other than the People's Republic of China really own anything in the People's Republic of China? (referring to the Japanese company having their own factory in China).

Actually -the answer is yes now. Recent reforms have made it possible to have a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE). China has some serious “stuff” going on and they are very concerned with some serious exodus of foreign companies or partial exodus due to a variety of factors including the extraordinary rise in shipping/transportation costs, quality control, pressure exerted by both the population (buyers) and political side in their “home” countries, the above board pressure to share their technology with their Chinese “partner” in the former 49/51 percent split, the under the table stealing of their tech by Chinese planted spies in their operations, the repatriation of profits, the continued growing unrest of the Chinese population due to domestic plant closings/layoffs while simultaneously more and more of the population streams into the major population centers from the rural outback.

So China has made major strides to try to attract/re-attract foreign businesses, foreign capital investment, jobs (which in turn further educates their uneducated/underskilled rural labor population with new & useful skill sets. All that money they have been spending on military operations (those carriers etc aren’t cheap) as well as all the spending in third world countries while at the same time a cut in their cash flow has led to some major capital constraints.

So yes I would not be surprised if a major Japanese producer like Yamaha did indeed now own their own plant in China. I don’t know that to be a fact - I’m just saying that at this point in time it is indeed possible to completely own/control/operate. The fact that Japan is so close geographically also lessens the transportation cost significantly vs European or USA companies making the economic calculous for setting up a WFOE in China currently. But, I’d also bet my last dollar that your foreign owned plant will have China military operatives hidden in your work force.

[prodigal]

Whatever happened to buying used instruments?

(Just saying...)