Yamaha began life in 1887 when Torakusu Yamaha repaired a school organ and decided to try starting a business building and selling these musical instruments. Torakusu had always been good working with machinery as after training as a watch maker he worked repairing hospital equipment. He founded the Yamaha Organ Company then built and sold his first reed organ and with its success orders for the instrument started to come in with a substantial export of 78 organs to be shipped to Asia in 1892. By 1897 the business was expanding and the name was changed to the Nippon Gakki Company Limited with Torakusu Yamaha its first president. In the early 1900s they produced quality musical instruments and also began to design and make top quality furniture winning an award in 1904 at the St Louis World Fair for their pianos and organs. The company continued to grow and introduce new products although most were aimed at the music and sound market. 1922 saw hand operated phonographs produced and research into acoustics was well established keeping them at the forefront of sound technology and manufacturing.

Genichi Kawakami was a 1934 graduate from Takachiho Commercial School and in July 1937 joined the company and proceeded to work his way to manager of the musical instruments factory from there to the general manager. By the age of 38 in 1950 he became the companies president and this was to be a great turning point in the direction of this company. At this point the business was doing well and Genichi decided to look at other products and foreign markets for the company to diverse into. After looking at many products to start designing and manufacturing from sewing machines to automobile spares and accessories he decided that motorcycles were the market to pursue. He along with some of his managers and engineers visited many motorcycle factories throughout Europe and America on fact finding missions before setting up a motorcycle production factory to produce their own machines. The first to be built was in 1955 a 125cc machine called the YAI and nick named the Akatombo which when translated means the red dragonfly. This was thoroughly tested including being taken on a 10,000km drive to ensure that the machine was reliable and hardy. The same year it was produced it was entered in Japan’s motorcycle racing competitions and won over established manufacturers. This machine proved popular and the factory immediately began work on a larger machine a 175cc motorcycle which would be called the YCI.

Genichi was determined to press on fast and in 1958 entered a Japanese built machine in a grand prix race in Catalina in the USA in which it finished an impressive sixth. Wasting no time he exploited this recognition by importing motorcycles through a distributer into the American and European markets. The motorcycle proved a success and he expanded into the marine sector in 1960 looking to produce both engines and build boats using new plastics technologies like fiberglass. Shortly after stepping into the marine sector both a boat the CAT-21 and Yamahas first outboard engine the P-7 were produced and the company is now one of the biggest powerboat and outboard motor manufacturers in the world today.