Founded 80 years ago, アックスヤマザキ opened up a market with its proprietary yarn sewing machine. While protecting the business with patents, the company is expanding overseas and moving to create its next source of value.
The long-established sewing machine manufacturer アックスヤマザキ, based in Ikuno-ku, Osaka, has reached its 80th anniversary. Under its third-generation president, Yamazaki Kazufumi (山崎一史), the company has placed intellectual property at the core of its management strategy. Having experienced battles over imitation and competition with major companies, it shifted to management focused on protecting its distinctiveness through patents and linking that protection to its next source of value.
Its yarn sewing machine for children, launched in 2015, became a major hit, with cumulative sales exceeding 150,000 units. With overseas markets in mind, the company filed an international application under the PCT in 2018. It subsequently obtained patents in the United States and elsewhere, and sent notices to overseas manufacturers selling similar products, prompting them to halt sales.
In the 2020s, the company developed the MIRAI sewing machine, designed with repairs to spacesuits in mind. Its design applies stitches directly to sofas, saddles and other items. A concept model was unveiled at last year's Osaka Expo and attracted considerable attention. The company's intellectual property strategy has evolved toward identifying new sources of value based on consumers' everyday challenges.
While continuing to address imitation, the company is exploring overseas expansion with an emphasis on local market feedback. Recognizing the reality that protecting patent rights requires time, effort and expense rather than simply obtaining them, it has indicated a policy of expanding the business with rebranding and the development of new markets in view.