Since beginning our Preserving Our History series in August 2023, we’ve presented a variety of information covering topics like the experts on the restoration team that breathe new life into vintage Yamaha products and maintain them, the actual steps in the restoration process, and an owner who donated his beloved classic Yamaha to the Plaza. The passion of the staff working to pass on the history of Yamaha Motor’s Monozukuri has inspired an increasing number of employees to make their own visits to the Plaza.

Right around when that series of articles began being published, the Plaza’s planning team was in the middle of considering various proposals for celebrating the MT-09’s 10th anniversary. The MT-09 has won a sterling reputation, particularly in Europe, but the team wanted to create an interesting exhibit that could only be put together at the headquarters in Japan…one that would not only please customers in Japan but also something dealers would find fun and encouraging as well. The idea they decided on was a comprehensive exhibit featuring every MT-09 model to date—all preserved in running condition—that visitors to could freely sit on. By putting every MT-09 generation since the original 2014 model through to the latest 2024 version in one space allowed visitors to see and feel how the now iconic machine has evolved over its 10-year life.

GK Dynamics, the very same design firm that helped bring each MT-09 to life, collaborated on this project as well. They were in charge of designing the exhibit’s layout, its various fittings and components, and provided their expertise and assistance for the entire undertaking. Each model is accompanied by explanatory panels describing its key design and development points. Plus, stickers with illustrations of each model generation’s front face were also specially produced and included in the display for added fun.

Offers of support were also received from the Motorcycle Business Unit. The development teams suggested including new technologies featured on the latest MT-09 in the exhibition, such as the attractive fuel tank made possible with Yamaha’s new MP8 press machinery the newly developed handlebar switchbox emphasizing user ergonomics. Taking these ideas on board, the Plaza became the hub joining together the many departments involved with the MT-09’s development and evolution over the past ten years, weaving their knowledge and expertise into the exhibit.

In conjunction with this commemorative exhibition, the display riggings were also updated. In particular, the stands which support and fix the machines in place were designed to make it easier and safer for visitors to sit on the motorcycles without imposing excessive loads on them. The stands were custom-made to match the dimensions of each MT-09 and make it easy to view each model while complementing the overall display. They are their own works of art worth a closer look.

This is how the anniversary exhibit came together and it attracted much attention from both customers and Yamaha Motor employees. What Plaza staff noted in particular was that domestic dealers visiting the facility that interacted with the MT-09 display later posted about it on their social media channels, making it double as a form of sales promotion.

“Some dealers from outside the prefecture actually brought groups of customers to the Plaza with the MT-09 display as the main draw. It was great to see customers’ enthusiasm firsthand as they viewed the exhibit, but seeing company employees and visitors from YMSJ and our other affiliates also enjoying it brought a different sense of accomplishment. We’ve even had employees from competing motorcycle brands visit and they examine everything with a lot of interest. Including technology displays like the handlebar switchbox and other new tech featured on the latest model was the result of proposals from younger engineers. I think they’ve rarely ever been offered the place or opportunity to proudly as well as directly show off the results of all their hard work. Part of what we want to do at the Plaza is deliver the latest developments and info our business units want to share with society in ways that customers and clients can view and learn about in enjoyable ways. In the future, I want to see more exhibits like this at the Communication Plaza.”
- MATSUO, Akito | Communication Plaza Manager

Thanks to the notable success of the commemorative MT-09 exhibition, the Plaza has received multiple new requests from several other business units to collaborate on new displays.

On the first floor of the Communication Plaza is an exhibit space titled Ran-Ko-Kou-Shin: The Logic Driving Yamaha Motor Design. The third theme in this series, titled The Cultural Geography of Colors (ASEAN Nations), ran until July 2024. The space lined up several noteworthy commuter vehicles from years past that became popular models in ASEAN markets. This series of displays was actually kick-started from a strong sense of duty held by UEMURA, Kunisaburo from GK Dynamics and Plaza manager Matsuo to preserve the experience and expertise in Yamaha Motor Design GK has accumulated over the decades at Yamaha headquarters as well. With the cooperation and supervision of the Brand Marketing Division, the series of exhibitions was planned and greenlighted.

“GK Dynamics has been designing Yamaha Motor products since the days of the YA-1, and they have been right there with us for each big step in the history of Yamaha Monozukuri. The colors, materials, curves forming a model’s silhouette, even the subtle use of shadow are elements reflecting the traits GK has passed down and carried on as Yamaha Motor Design. That design logic is something we have to weave into the very fabric of Yamaha.” - MATSUO, Akito | Communication Plaza Manager

When Yamaha first began trying to enter the ASEAN two-wheeler market, planning the kind of product to launch and deliberating what design to go with was mostly a matter of trial and error. Matsuo himself took the lead when Yamaha first set up a business in Cambodia, and from that experience, he talks about the efforts he made to understand the country’s values and needs:

“At the time, Honda was by far the dominant player in ASEAN markets, and as latecomers, Yamaha bikes just weren’t selling all that well. I think GK also had quite a hard time figuring out how to adapt and incorporate all their previous experiences into a product tailored to ASEAN markets. In an effort to understand the country’s culture and lifestyles, I was constantly asking young people in the cities about the current trends and what colors and designs they preferred.”

Regarding the series’ theme of colors in ASEAN markets, at the time, Yamaha carried out research on the popular color trends in each market, the electricity supply situation and what kind of light bulbs were typical, and so on, investigating a wide variety of factors. According to Matsuo, ASEAN countries at the time were still developing and their light bulbs had a yellowish hue that significantly influenced how the colors of a model’s bodywork appeared at night.

Present-day Indonesia and Vietnam are now manufacturing bases for the YZF-R25 and many other Yamaha models, many of which are also exported to Japan and Europe. In fact, ASEAN markets are beginning to become the birthplaces of their own new two-wheeled trends, and the growth those markets have achieved was undoubtedly supported these processes of trial and error and the buildup of knowledge on the ground.

Until now, most of the content we have published was about restoring motorcycles, but the Plaza is actively expanding its restoration efforts to include other products as well. At Yamaha Marina Hamanako, a PC-3 outboard motor, which was first sold in 1963, is being restored. The PC-3 is an epoch-making model that set Yamaha Motor on its path to becoming the world’s top outboard motor manufacturer. The yellow fuel tank cover is also what gave these models their “Yamaha’s Yellow Hats” nickname in Japan. Adapting the drivetrain technology and know-how acquired from building motorcycle engines and putting together high-quality products is how Yamaha Motor branched out into a wide range of business fields.

Recently, in our efforts to preserve that history, there is a new and urgent need now to preserve the knowledge accumulated in businesses that the company has decided to withdraw from—namely, snowmobiles and swimming pools. Much like our outboard motors, Yamaha snowmobiles utilized small-engine technologies adapted from our motorcycles and were launched as a business in North America and Europe in 1968. In similar fashion, our swimming pool business used the FRP modeling and molding expertise the company developed and refined for boats, with Yamaha Motor launching Japan’s first-ever FRP swimming pool in 1974. Since then, Yamaha’s swimming pools for schools and recreational facilities (those exceeding 20 meters) have occupied the top spot in the domestic market.

Both of these businesses have more than 50 years of history, so they have vast stores of knowledge and expertise. If that knowledge and heritage is not preserved and passed on now, the people who know the products inside and out as well as those with the skills to restore those products will be very difficult to find again. When the news spread that these businesses would be coming to an end, everyone at the Communication Plaza was apprehensive. Currently, preparations are underway to create an exhibit about Yamaha’s pool business, but because the main market for Yamaha snowmobiles is North America, gathering information on the business solely in Japan is a challenge, so the Plaza staff handling this project is frantically trying to find a solution. To prevent all the accumulated knowledge and history with pools and snowmobiles acquired over so many years from being lost forever, it must be collected and preserved. It was that sense of crisis and duty that drove the Communication Plaza to actively expand its restoration effort to include businesses beyond motorcycles and to direct more of its resources into expanding its exhibits.