The History of the Yazaki Arrow
Corporate symbol
The roots of the red arrow go back to the rhomboid symbol which was used by Yazaki Densen Kogyo K.K., the predecessor of the Yazaki Corporation.
The rhomboid symbol was always attached to Yazaki products at this time. It was designed using the first letters of Yazaki Electric Wire. The ‘Y’ was put in the center, the ‘E’ on the left and ‘W’ on the right side of the rhomboid. It is said that Mr. Sadami Yazaki, the founder of Yazaki, took the initiative to design the symbol.
In addition to the corporate symbol the Yazaki logo in red cursive script was also used at this time. Sadami Yazaki saw a box of wires clearly marked with the Yazaki logo in a small mountain village in the Philippines during a trip to South East Asia. It is said that he was both very surprised and deeply impressed at the same time and became aware of Yazaki as “A Corporation in Step with the World”.
Due to the expansion of Yazaki it became necessary to standardize the corporate symbol. This was announced in 1951 when the Yazaki Corporation celebrated its 10th anniversary.
According to the teachings of Motonari MORI (Warlord 1497-1571) MORI asked his three sons to bend a single arrow. The boys did this and the arrow broke immediately so MORI bundled 3 arrows together and asked his sons to try again. The boys used all their strength but were not able to break the arrows this time. In other words one single arrow (person) is weak but 3 bundled arrows (working together as a team) are difficult to break.
Based on this story and the fact that the shape of the letter E used in the rhomboid is similar to that of three arrows, Mr. Sadami Yazaki suggested that an arrow should be used as the corporate symbol.
This was the beginning of the Yazaki arrow.
The current arrow symbol was created by internal staff without any external designer support or expertise. It was filed at the patent office in May 1952 and patented in May 1953.
At the time of the creation of the arrow Yazaki’s aim was global expansion. This has now been achieved and with pride in our corporate policy we now aim higher for “A Corporation in Step with the World” and “A Corporation Needed by Society”.
*Ya of Yazaki means arrow in Japanese.
