The history of Yamaha Motorcycles is a diverse one with the company being part of one of the Japanese manufacturing giants. They produce a wide variety of musical instruments, motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles, and other vehicles and vehicle parts. Yamaha is the largest producer in the world of a full line of musical instruments, is the second largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world, and is an international success. What is the history of this multi-talented corporation that dominates in such widely diverse fields?

Yamaha’s history began when it was first founded in 1887 by Torakusu Yamaha. At first the company manufactured reed organs and acoustic pianos. In the 1950s, the then CEO of Yamaha realised that all the time and effort put into researching lightweight, sturdy metal alloys for acoustic piano parts could be used for many other applications. After World War II, there was great demand in Japan for motorcycles, with over 100 companies trying to compete for market share. In 1955, Yamaha Motor Corporation was founded and Yamaha tried its hand for the first time at motorcycle production.

At first, Yamaha sold what were basically repackaged versions of European motorcycles. This was standard practice for new motorcycle companies in Japan. The first motorcycle designed by Yamaha – the YA1 - was launched in 1957, a 125cc two stroke twin cylinder machine. Although it was popular, only 15,000 motorcycles were sold by Yamaha that year, putting them well behind Honda and Suzuki.

In 1960, Yamaha sold 138,000 motorcycles; a dramatic improvement. This year is when Yamaha, like rival motorcycle manufacturers Honda and Suzuki, decided to expand into foreign markets to combat the recession in Japan. Since domestic sales were lower, the American market was seen as the place to make money.

In 1963, Yamaha made a move that turned out to be brilliant. They started selling motorcycles that could be raced “straight from the crate” without any modifications or alterations whatsoever. This caused a huge rise in the popularity of their machines, and Yamaha motorcycles started winning more races than any other motorcycles, which of course generated publicity and raised their popularity even more.

The success of their “straight from the crate” machines was followed in 1965 by another extremely popular innovation: the AutoLube system. Prior to this system, riders had to mix oil with their gasoline at every fill up of a two stroke engine, but the AutoLube system ensured that oil was distributed to the parts that needed it, and eliminated the mixing of oil with gas, which saved riders time and effort. Yamaha was rewarded for its innovation in 1967, when it finally produced more motorcycles in one year than Suzuki.

In 1973, Yamaha sold over 1 million motorcycles, putting it about 400,000 units ahead of Suzuki. Although still far behind Honda, (1.8 million) Yamaha had cemented its place as the second largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. In 1980, Yamaha sold 2.2 million motorcycles, and over half of those exported outside Japan.

Yamaha today is a huge corporation with many divisions, and the Yamaha Motor Corporation is just one of these. As history shows, Yamaha’s diversity, innovation and persistence have made it a world leader in many areas including motorcycle design and manufacturing.