A Musical Instrument Manufacturer Building Motorcycles?
Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. was founded on July 1, 1955, making this year the 70th anniversary of our founding. Yamaha Motor’s story began with Nippon Gakki (today’s Yamaha Corporation), one of Japan’s leading manufacturers of musical instruments.
As a company with a long history and one that was growing by leaps and bounds even at the time, the question on many people’s minds was, “Why would a musical instrument company enter the motorcycle business?” This month, we introduce the background to that decision and our founder, KAWAKAMI, Genichi.