Founder's
Spirit

YANMAR’s founder, Magokichi Yamaoka (1888–1962), established YAMAOKA HATSUDOKI KOSAKUSHO in 1912 with the passion to make farmers’ work easier, leading to the development and manufacturing of the oil engine that became the origin of YANMAR’s business.

He later recognized the potential of diesel engines and, after extensive research, successfully developed and commercialized the world’s first commercially viable small diesel engine in 1933. This achievement was highly recognized even in West Germany, the birthplace of the diesel engine.

After the war, he promoted the mechanization of agriculture, while expanding the use of diesel-powered machinery to marine, construction, and industrial sectors, paving the way for widespread utilization both domestically and internationally.

Born in a small farming village, Magoichi Yamaoka was driven by his desire to improve people’s lives—especially to reduce the burden of everyday work. This determination led to the development of a small-scale diesel engine. At the root of this was sincerity and a heart of gratitude.
Magokichi once said, “If you strive without losing sincerity and gratitude, you will gain great partners, your path will open, and people will thank you—thus ‘grateful to serve for a better world.’”

Being grateful for nature, our customers, and our colleagues—this belief of our founder serves as the spiritual pillar of YANMAR.
It is this sense of gratefulness that fuels our passion to create something better and our determination to overcome difficulties, ultimately creating a better world.
This spirit continues to live within us, passed down to this day.

Yanmar's founder Magokichi Yamaoka was driven by the vision of easing the burden on workers through automation, he was the first in the world to achieve the difficult engineering feat of creating a compact and practical diesel engine. Knowing that, for resource-poor Japan, every drop of fuel had to be put toward social development, Yamaoka turned the company’s ability to produce superior engines to the task of expansion into the industrial machinery field, never forgetting the principle “To Conserve Fuel Is to Serve Mankind.”

This embodied the spirit of A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE — New Value through Technology — at that time and continues to be passed down through our current Purpose: Why We Exist.