Empowered by a passion for innovation,
we create expectional value and experiences
that enrich the lives of our customers
Revs your Heart YAMAHA

KANDO creating Company

KANDO is a Japanese word that describes the strong feeling of satisfaction and excitement when experiencing something of outstanding value.

Since its establishment, Yamaha Motor has continuously developed and perfected products. By consolidating its unique values and identity, the company decided to choose the mission of "becoming a company that creates KANDO" since then with this philosophical foundation that has contributed to the individuality of the company. and differences in products, including outboard marine engines.

Yamaha Motor strives to realize peoples' dreams with ingenuity and passion, and to always be a company that people look to for the next exciting product or concept that provides exceptional value and deep satisfaction.
Empowered by a passion for innovation, we create exceptional value and experiences that enrich the lives of our customers.

Begining of Outboard’s Development

In 1953, Yamaha Motor founder Genichi Kawakami took a 90-day study and observation tour of the United States and Europe shortly after taking the post of president of the company. Multiple times on the tour, he saw people enjoying their time on the water and became convinced that marine recreation would someday come to Japan as well. After he returned home, Kawakami acquired a sailing cruiser to help better understand the key appeals of marine leisure by doing it himself, enjoying time sailing on Lake Hamana.
His cruiser mounted an outboard motor from a prominent American brand at the time, but it broke down frequently, so he switched to a Japanese brand instead. But he found that while it suffered fewer mechanical problems, its performance did not even come close to matching the American outboard.
That was what gave President Kawakami an idea; if an outboard like that did not exist, Yamaha should make one. At the time, however, Japan was only about to enter its post-war period of rapid economic growth. Electric home appliances had only just begun to enter Japanese homes, and the very idea of going out boating on the weekends never even occurred to most. President Kawakami knew that even if they succeeded in developing an outboard motor, they couldn’t make a business of selling them if there was nobody interested in buying them. So, he concluded that their sole target for the time being would be commercial use, such as fishermen seeing signs that they needed to begin motorizing their boats, and he directed development to begin.
The development team for the P-7, Yamaha’s first outboard, consisted of just two engineers. The story goes that at the start, the only information they were given to work from were catalogs and brochures of outboards sold overseas at that time. It was truly a case of relying on trial and error every step of the way. In 1958, they had succeeded in building a 250cc prototype based on the engine of Yamaha’s YD-1 motorcycle, but due to setbacks like breakage in the engine mounts, the project to build a marketable outboard with it was abandoned. At the time, the engineers were at work establishing standards for product testing alongside development, and they ran repeated 24-hour tests of the prototypes using the factory’s firefighting water reservoir as a makeshift test tank. The tests would run until something broke, then the engine was examined and a way was found to fix it.
In 1960, an outboard motor ready for the market was finally completed. It was released as the P-7, with a production plan of 200 units per month. This marked the beginning of Yamaha’s history with outboard motors.

However, the P-7 could by no means be called a top-notch outboard. It was noisy and vibrated considerably

It wasn’t until a year after the P-7, in November 1961, that Yamaha outboard motors began to be recognized and accepted on the market. That came with the release of our second model, the P-3, powered by a 63cc air-cooled single-cylinder 3 hp motor. It had been developed precisely for the needs of the growing commercial-use market, where 3 hp motors were the de facto standard.

Having been developed with a focus on engine durability and corrosion resistance, the P-3 was especially resistant to abrasion. This was thanks to the exclusively developed aluminum alloy it used, which contained silicon. It was also the first domestic outboard motor to use die-cast parts, helping achieve a lighter and more compact design. Special attention was also given to making the motor easy to start and operate.
However, the P-7 could by no means be called a top-notch outboard. It was noisy and vibrated considerably

Having been developed with a focus on engine durability and corrosion resistance, the P-3 was especially resistant to abrasion. This was thanks to the exclusively developed aluminum alloy it used, which contained silicon. It was also the first domestic outboard motor to use die-cast parts, helping achieve a lighter and more compact design. Special attention was also given to making the motor easy to start and operate.
Unlike the P-7, where development was conducted entirely by trial and error, the P-3 was developed and refined based on feedback directly from the market. It could be said to represent the first time Yamaha incorporated market feedback into a product. Whenever there were performance complaints following its release, Yamaha engineers would make frequent visits to dealers to hear about the issues directly, or straight from users’ mouths. They would then put that to use in finding solutions and making improvements.
As word spread about the P-3’s ease of use, it soon began to appear in increasing numbers in Japan’s fishing ports, where most boats had been powered by other brands. At one fishing town on the eastern side of Chiba Prefecture, it is said that it only took one year for virtually all of the port’s fishing boats to switch to Yamaha’s P-3 outboards.

Building the Primary Foundation

In 1967, President Kawakami had a meeting with Pakistan’s Ambassador to Japan. That led to the start of Yamaha Motor’s venture into outboard motor markets overseas.
When Yamaha engineers first traveled to what was then East Pakistan (current Bangladesh) and saw the system of countless canals and extensive use of water transport in the country’s coastal region, what impressed them was the enormous potential demand for outboard motors. However, there were a number of high hurdles to be cleared before outboards could be introduced successfully. One of the most immediate obstacles was the shape of the country’s traditional boats. These were double-ender boats that could not mount an outboard without modification. After much trial and error, the new P125AK outboard was developed at the same time as a new type of boat that could mount an outboard and was tailored to the needs of the market. The potential this combination could offer drew high expectations in Pakistan.
That was not the end of the trials Yamaha faced for bringing their outboards to Pakistan, however. After the P125AK, the newly developed P250K outboard was introduced but was beset by mechanical trouble, causing a bevy of customer complaints. Yamaha Motor responded quickly by dispatching service technicians from Japan to survey the situation. What they saw was the extremely hard use the outboards were being subjected to. These repeated efforts gave the users a feeling of assurance that Yamaha would always be there to solve any problems that arose, and that reputation soon spread throughout the markets of Asia. Also, these first exports of outboards to Pakistan built the foundation for an excellent service network that became associated with the Yamaha name worldwide.
By the 1970s, Yamaha was strengthening its relationship with emerging markets around the world. Yamaha outboards spread successfully to markets where American and European outboard makers had never ventured at the time. These included countries throughout Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, as well as the islands of the Pacific, and in each of these areas, Yamaha continued actively conducting aftersales service.
However, there were many cases of outboards simply being left to rust away if they had broken down just once. That led to Yamaha sending technical staff to run service demonstrations, traveling from fishing village to fishing village to perform maintenance on the outboards being used in each region. There was no place in the world that Yamaha engineers and service staff would not go. In these regions, an outboard motor was an important asset and something vital to peoples’ livelihoods. In addition to providing service for Yamaha outboards, the service staff also worked to repair the abandoned outboards from other brands. Of course, the knowledge and experience gained from this field work was incorporated into new product development. In this way, Yamaha Motor gradually created a new category of commercial-use outboard motors, with the lineup broken down into spec variations to fit the exact needs and use conditions of each region. These refinement efforts are what led to the Enduro line of outboards that people love and depend on in their work around the world today.

Toward Larger Outboards

After building a strong base in the commercial-use outboard market, Yamaha took on the challenge of developing larger horsepower models for recreational use, but it was no easy task to catch up to established U.S. outboard manufacturers. What Yamaha then did in 1974 was to market the jointly developed 55A model, powered by a liquid-cooled 2-cylinder 760cc engine. It featured new and exclusive technologies that included a fully carburized one-piece crankcase, 2-piece (assembled) connecting rods and capacitor discharge ignition (CDI). This became the base from which Yamaha’s new lineup of large-horsepower outboards would be developed.

The year 1982 saw the subsequent release of the 200A and 220A models that pumped out over 200 hp. Then in September 1983, after the dissolution of Yamaha’s tie-up with Brunswick Corporation, the company launched a full lineup of Yamaha-brand outboards at one of the world’s largest marine trade shows in Chicago, U.S. This event on American soil signaled Yamaha’s entry as an outboard maker in the North American market. The strong reliability that Yamaha had acquired through its years in commercial-use markets globally led to its outboards also being well received in the world’s largest outboard market of North America.

As the Global Brand

Exclusive Yamaha technologies including highly durable paint finishes and anti-corrosion measures, along with the rugged durability honed in the world's most demanding commercial-use markets, helped win the Yamaha brand a reputation for durability and reliability in the leisure-use sectors of the US and other mature marine markets. This set Yamaha Motor on course to become the acknowledge world leading brand it is today.
Yamaha Motor continues to value the use-specific, market-oriented approach that made it a global brand. While for the leisure-use markets Yamaha has led the way in developing a growing lineup of high-quality 4-stroke models, at the same time we continue to offer a proud lineup of 2-stroke models ranging from 2 to 250 hp for commercial-use oriented markets around the world. What's more, these models come in a very large number of variations tailored to specific regional and local requirements regarding factors like the actually use conditions and the types of boats they are mounted on. It is this Yamaha dedication to specific customer needs that makes us the brand of choice used and loved by people all over the world today.
Yamaha Motor has been manufacturing and marketing 2-stroke outboard motors for more than 50 years since the launch of the first Yamaha outboard in 1960. Outboard motors are used worldwide in a variety of environments and for a wide range of uses. The highest concentration in demand for 2-stroke outboards is in markets where commercial use exceeds leisure use.
Because Yamaha wants to answer the needs of as many users as possible with reliable outboard motors capable of meeting the demands of the harshest use conditions and environments, we continue to provide a full lineup of 2-stroke models in Enduro and kerosene-fuel specs alongside our 4-stroke lineup. Now, this proven 2-stroke lineup has a new look. With the exception of a few models, the 2-stroke lineup features new graphics with prominent use of the Yamaha tuning fork logo as a symbol of the Yamaha brand's reputation for unmatched product reliability and durability.

Becoming the World’s Top Brand

Yamaha built its reputation as an outboard manufacturer with 2-stroke engines, but a major factor in earning recognition as the world’s leading outboard brand was our technical expertise for creating more eco-friendly engines. The U.S. first implemented outboard emissions standards in the 1990s to reduce their environmental impact, and developed nations and emerging economies later followed suit one after another. This pivotal movement soon shifted the focus of outboard motor manufacturers toward developing more eco-friendly engines. But Yamaha had already begun R&D for creating a 4-stroke outboard in 1975 and launched the 2-cylinder F9.9A as its first 4-stroke outboard in 1984.
Further advancements were made to the model and in 1992, the F9.9 became the first outboard in the world to clear the Bodensee-Schifffahrts-Ordnung (BSO) emissions regulations (governing watercraft on Lake Constance on the borders of Germany, Switzerland and Austria), said to be the strictest in the world at the time. Yamaha released the F100A in 1998, a model powered by an in-line 4-cylinder, 16-valve DOHC engine. The F100A boasted class-leading power and environmental performance, and with its full line of transom mounts, propeller types and more, it could be used on a great variety of boats around the world.
In the first year of the 21st century, Yamaha released the F225A, the world’s first large-capacity 4-stroke outboard motor rated at over 200 hp. At the time, it had been considered technologically difficult to produce a commercially viable a 4-stroke outboard exceeding 200 hp. But Yamaha overcame the technical hurdles by equipping the F225A’s all-new 60° V6 DOHC engine unit with an in-bank exhaust system, in which the exhaust system is located inside the V-bank of the cylinders and the air intake system located outside. This resulted in an engine size comparable to high-end 2-stroke engines of the day and a weight viable for outboard use. Further, the F225A featured highly efficient intake and exhaust systems successfully reduced emissions and improved fuel economy while running at high speeds.
In this way, reducing weight and achieving greater compactness, good fuel economy, low noise and excellent environmental friendliness—all while retaining reliability—became the primary aims for all Yamaha 4-stroke outboard development.

For Reliable and Rich Marine Life

In addition to its large-horsepower 4-stroke outboards, Yamaha continued its efforts to develop and market 2-stroke outboards in line with the global movement to preserve the environment, employing proprietary technologies like the High-Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI) system to improve their eco-friendliness. However, once its 4-strokes were able to surpass at all horsepower ranges the inherent advantages of 2-strokes like acceleration, compactness and lightness, Yamaha shifted to an all-4-stroke lineup for its recreational-use outboards.
Then in 2018, Yamaha released the F425A. It brought a revolutionary rethinking of what outboards deliver when powering big offshore boats.
In 2010, eight years before the release of the F425A, Yamaha announced an agreement for joint development of outboard-based boat control systems with Swedish boat equipment manufacturer, Volvo Penta. This later led to the release of the Helm Master boat control system in 2012
And in 2017, Yamaha also developed and released the CL7 color touchscreen display that further increases the ease and convenience of operating large, outboard-powered boats
In this way, reducing weight and achieving greater compactness, good fuel economy, low noise and excellent environmental friendliness—all while retaining reliability—became the primary aims for all Yamaha 4-stroke outboard development