Osaki OS Pro Yamato Massage Chair Review 2024

Do you suffer from chronic back, leg, or foot pain? Are you on a first-name basis with your local chiropractor and looking for a way to save some money and get relief at home?

If you answered yes to the questions above, you might have begun researching massage chair options and been intrigued by what you’ve read in various Osaki OS-Pro Yamato massage chair reviews.

You’ll be happy to know that Osaki is one of the big names in the industry, and they have a track record for making excellent products. Read here for more of their product lineup.

In fairness, the Yamato Pro was an exceptional massage chair when it was first released, but there’s a problem. It was released in 2018 and technology has moved on considerably since then.

Back in 2018, we would have recommended this one without reservation, but now, as you’ll see in our Osaki OS Pro Yamato review, we just can’t. And we’ll go into detail about exactly why and then point you toward some options that will certainly serve you better.

If you want to know more, read on, and let’s take a closer look at where this model falls short and what could be done to make it a must-have again.

An Overview of the Osaki OS-Pro Yamato Massage Chair

This is provisionally a fairly strong component of our Osaki OS Pro Yamato review because the basics don’t really change much over time.

The Yamato Pro’s overall dimensions are 33.1” W x 62.6” L x 49.2” H (74.8” L x 36.2” H when fully reclined), and the chair weighs 216.2 pounds, so it’s a hefty piece of furniture. 

If you don’t opt for White Glove service or if it’s not offered in your area, it would definitely make sense to have an assistant standing by on the day the chair arrives because unless you’re a distant relative of the Incredible Hulk, it will probably be too big and cumbersome to maneuver into position by yourself.

Honestly, we don’t recommend White Glove service in any case. The Osaki Pro Yamato assembly process is pretty simple, mostly owing to the fact that it comes about 90% assembled in the first place, so there’s just not much left to do, and what little you’ll need to do is clearly spelled out in the well-written user manual.

You’ll also be pleased to know that the chair sports a space-saving design, so it only needs about 4.7” of clearance between the seatback and whatever wall you decide to place it near in order to fully recline. That’s awesome and makes finding a permanent home for the Yamato Pro fairly easy.

One thing to be aware of is that this model can only support up to 220 pounds of user weight. While there’s no firm industry standard here, most of the massage chairs on the market can support 300 pounds, and many can support significantly more than that, so this one’s weight limit leaves us feeling a bit underwhelmed.

Of course, if you weigh less than that anyway, it won’t matter to you, but if you happen to weigh more, then even if this winds up being the perfect massage chair for you, it won’t matter—the weight limit is going to be an absolute dealbreaker.

In addition to that, the Yamato Pro has what we’d describe as a disappointing massage track that only measures 43” in length. That makes this chair suitable for users ranging from 5’ to 6’ tall. If you’re taller than that, don’t count on this model giving you a world-class massage. It just won’t be able to reach all of your pressure points properly.

Again, if you’re in that height range, this fact won’t matter to you at all, but if you’re taller than that, you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment if you invest in this chair.

All of this underscores why we used the word “provisionally” at the start of this section. If you weigh less than 220 pounds and are no taller than 6’, this chair will be a great fit for you; to be fair, that describes a gigantic slice of the market. It also leaves a fair number of people out, and if you’re one of those, then the Osaki Pro Yamato is going to be a non-starter.

Before we leave this section, it’s worth mentioning that Osaki isn’t one of those companies that try to disguise the true nature of the products they sell. Their massage chairs look like massage chairs. 

If you want a massage chair that can disguise itself as a conventional recliner when you’re not using it, you can absolutely have that—it just won’t be an Osaki chair, but such chairs exist!

The Osaki Pro Yamato Massage Chair Utilizes Decent But Dated Technology

Much of the Yamato’s tech holds up pretty well today, even though it is aging, but there’s one glaring example where it doesn’t, and because of that, we have to regard this as a relatively weak aspect of our Osaki OS Pro Yamato review.

Let’s start with the good, though, because there are some good things to talk about here. First, Osaki chairs boast world-class body-scanning technology. Anytime you sit in the chair, it will take a quick scan of your body and quietly adjust the position of the massage rollers so that they hit your body’s pressure points just right.

Even better, the chair will almost always put the rollers exactly where they need to go, but if for some reason it misses the mark now and then, you’ll find controls on the remote that will allow you to reposition them to taste. That way, you’ll never get anything less than the best massage this chair is capable of giving.

Also, the Yamato boasts excellent quad rollers, which remain the industry standard to this day.

Similarly, the Bluetooth speakers offered on this chair are identical to the Bluetooth speakers you’ll find on new models released this year.

Unfortunately, as we mentioned earlier, one glaring weakness is the massage track itself.

Today, most of the chairs on the market sport a 3D massage track that allows the rollers to move along the X, Y, and Z-axis. The poor Yamato, however, is saddled with a 2D massage track, and this makes a bigger difference than you might think in terms of overall massage quality.

Combine the limitations of the 2D massage track with its somewhat short length, and you’ve got a major design problem with the chair, especially since the whole point of the thing is to render a great massage. 

No, it’s not automatically a dealbreaker because if you are in the “right” height and weight range and as long as you don’t have serious therapeutic requirements, this chair is still capable of giving a massage that’s “good enough.” If that’s all you’re looking for, it could still be a decent fit, but the simple truth is that there are better options out there for the same or even less money.

The Osaki Yamato Massage Chair Offers a Decent Number of Massage Options

We regard this as an above-average component of our Osaki OS Pro Yamato review because there are some really impressive things to discuss here. Unfortunately, that’s offset by a couple of disappointing limitations. Let’s take a closer look:

First, the good. The Osaki Yamato Pro offers the following massage techniques:

While there’s nothing special about the basic massage techniques (the first four), the big thing to talk about is the fact that this model offers not one but two advanced massage techniques.

That may not be enough to overcome the limitations of the 2D massage track, but its importance cannot be overstated. Swedish is a highly sought-after technique in the world of massage chairs, and the fact that you can get it here in a chair priced in the mid-range is beyond impressive.

Even better, the Yamato has ten pre-programmed massage routines you can enjoy. These are:

All of these are enjoyable, but here’s where we begin to run into the limitations of the 2D massage track.

Thai massage is meant to be aggressive, but for it to be effective, the rollers need to dig deep into your tissue, and the 2D track simply doesn’t allow that.

The good news is that this chair does feature two different Zero-G seating positions, and you can help this particular massage along by putting the chair in one of those two Zero-G positions before you begin your massage.

In a similar vein, the deep tissue massage on offer really struggles because the massage heads can’t move along the Z-axis. The same thinking applies, though. If you put the chair in one of its two Zero-G positions, your body weight will press you more firmly against the chair, allowing the rollers to dig a little deeper and do a better job. 

It is by no means a perfect solution, but it is a way you can milk a little bit of additional performance from the chair.

In addition to two advanced massage techniques and ten pre-programmed massage options, the Yamato offers both spot and partial modes and some customization, but here, we run into another limitation of the chair.

Because this chair sports a 2D massage track, there’s no good way (other than placing the chair in one of its Zero-G seating positions) to increase the overall intensity of the massage. All you can really do is adjust the speed of the rollers.

Granted, you’ve got five different speed options to choose from, and that’s good, but it’s a genuine limitation.

This Chair Has an Average Airbag Massage

The Yamato Pro has 36 airbags and is capable of rendering a good but rather unexceptional airbag-based massage, and here, you can adjust the intensity of the massage you get via five levels from the remote.

It feels good, but the feature implementation isn’t strong enough to prompt anyone to buy this model over some others on the basis of the air massage alone.

It Has Heat Too!

The quality of the massage you can get from this model is good, and with a bit of tweaking, it can even border on being great. The addition of heat really helps matters along here. Even better, on this model, heat is offered both in the lumbar region of your back and in the calf region of the leg massage ports, which is huge.

In fact, the only thing that would improve the offered heat would be precise temperature control, but only a handful of massage chairs on the market offer that, so it’s not something we were expecting.

The bottom line is this chair has heat and, even better, more extensive heat than you might imagine.

That’s a very good thing, both because heat has genuine therapeutic value and because it gives you, the user, another means of enhancing and modifying your massage experience. This is an exceptional one on a chair that is a bit light where such options are concerned. In our view, this is probably the best individual feature of the chair.

The Yamato Has an Exceptional Calf And Foot Massage

If the offered heat is the best feature of this model, then we’d have to rate the calf and foot massage as the second best, making this a fairly important component of our Osaki Pro Yamato review. 

A combination of airbags in the leg massage ports and foot rollers renders the calf and foot massage. That’s very good by itself, but when you add heat to the equation, it’s simply amazing.

If you spend several hours of each day on your feet and are looking for relief when you get home, this is probably going to wind up being your favorite feature.

It Has a Few High-Value Extras to Boot!

Osaki is very good about building high-value extras and finishing touches into their designs, and this model is no exception. The three big things to talk about here are:

All of these are outstanding, and all add value to the chair. Kudos to Osaki for their inclusion!

Pros & Cons of Osaki OS Pro Yamato Massage Chair

Here are the things we think you’ll like best about the Yamato Massage Chair:

As good as those selling points are, the simple truth is that this chair is hobbled by aging technology.

As such, this model is consistently outclassed by its more modern peers.

Osaki OS Pro Yamato Review Conclusion

Our goal in writing this Osaki OS Pro Yamato review was to convey two key points. First, this is by no means a bad chair or a bad design. It’s actually a rock-solid design that verged on greatness when it was first released in 2018.

Unfortunately for the Yamato, massage chair technology has advanced a great deal in the intervening years, and this chair is badly in need of an update. The more time that passes, the more glaring its shortcomings will become.

Given that, we cannot, in good conscience, recommend it. It’s just too easy to find a better chair for the same or less money.

Other Options to Consider

This is an amazing chair that’s just packed with features and is, in our view, the best value on the massage chair market today. Like Osaki, Kahuna is one of the giants in the industry—a brand with an impeccable reputation and a long history of offering great designs. This one’s well worth a look.

If you know you want a chair offered by Osaki, this is a great example of a modern, fully up-to-date model. This one has everything, including heated massage rollers and voice recognition. It’s a masterpiece of design and is well worth the extra money.

---

Official Manufacturer Support

References & Resources

• Osaki, Official Brand Website.
• Osaki OS Pro Yamato Massage Chair User Manual.
• Thai Massage, American Massage Therapy Association.
• Massage and Stress, Williams College.
• The Mechanisms of Massage and Effects on Performance, Muscle, Recovery and Injury Prevention, PubMed.