President's Message

Yamaha Motor was founded in 1955 as a mobility manufacturer by Genichi Kawakami from his desire to make enjoying daily life commonplace.
Our efforts to do just that led to our subsequent growth as a company through the diversification of the business centered around outdoor recreation, challenging ourselves to push into global markets, creating new demand, and creating new value from a sustainability perspective. Yamaha Motor also celebrates its 70th anniversary this year.

Our Corporate Mission is to be a Kando^* Creating Company. In 2018, we announced “ART for Human Possibilities: Let’s strive for greater happiness” as our Long-Term Vision for 2030. New MTP comes at the beginning of the six-year half remaining in our Long-Term Vision. With the basic policy of "Raise the competitiveness of our core businesses, acquire new technologies that expand human possibilities, and take on uniquely Yamaha challenges to create a world where people’s happiness and the environment coexist in harmony", we aim for further growth.

For 2024, as the supply of semiconductors improved, it helped our supply of premium segment models recover, but at the same time, the demand for outdoor recreation that boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic has largely settled down in developed markets, so we worked to adjust to suit supply and demand in the Marine Product, Recreational Vehicle (RV), and Smart Power Vehicle (SPV) businesses.

Amidst this business environment, we worked to move forward with the strategies for each business based on our Medium-Term Management Plan and strived to reel in costs with our break-even-point management style in mind.
The consolidated management accounts for fiscal 2024 were revenues of 2,576.2 billion yen (an increase of 161.4 billion yen or 6.7%) . As for operating income, after recording the effects soaring prices had on raising labor costs and other SG&A expenses; expenses linked to conducting reviews of our business structure, such as inventory valuation reductions; and impairment losses on certain fixed assets in the SPV and RV businesses; the final figure for 2024 was 181.5 billion yen (a decrease of 62.4 billion yen or 25.6%).
For 2025, we expect emerging market motorcycle and outboard motor demand in our core business to make a gradual recovery. Our efforts will be towards achieving sustainable growth by focusing on R&D, new product development, and upgrading our production equipment. We will also be conducting structural reforms for the SPV and RV businesses in order to improve profitability. By working to reduce costs and improve productivity, we expect to see an increase in sales revenue and operating income.

The new MTP further evolves our portfolio management and revises our business segments into “Core Businesses,” “Strategic Businesses,” and “New Businesses.” In the future, we aim to have all of our businesses surpassing the 12.5% hurdle rate for return on invested capital (ROIC) and continuously generate returns that exceed capital costs.
At the same time, we will strive to improve our corporate value through a positive cycle of feeding the results of dialogue with shareholders and investors back to management.

As we work toward realizing our Long-Term Vision of “ART for Human Possibilities: Let’s strive for greater happiness,” we will endeavor to deliver Kando to and answer the expectations of all our stakeholders.

I ask for your continued guidance and support as we move forward together.

Katsuaki Watanabe
Chairman and Director, and President, Representative Director
Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.

* Kando is a Japanese word for the simultaneous feeling of deep satisfaction and intense excitement that people experience when they encounter something of exceptional value.