A number of Japanese brands, call it Honda and Suzuki, produce cars and motorbikes until now. It turns out that besides the two of them, Toyota also did the same business strategy.
This Japanese jenama had a motorcycle business to be sold to consumers in the period 1949-1960. At that time, the two -wheeled unit they offer was named Toyo Motors.
The birth of Toyo Motors is inseparable from the share of Kazuo Kawamata who has loved the engine world since the age of 20 years. In fact he had worked part -time at the Toyota Motor Research Laboratory in 1942, under the leadership of the founder of Toyota Kiichiro Toyoda.
Considering he works in the research department, he got the task to develop a machine that can be used on a bicycle. In these years the development was quite difficult because it was also in conjunction with the ongoing World War 1, and Japan was also involved in war.
After World War 2, the needs of Japanese people for reliable means of transportation but still economical in terms of fuel increases. This condition then brought Kazuo to establish a Toyo Motors company around 1949, and was directly under the umbrella of Toyota.
The sale of his motorcycle finally began to be sold in 1952 turned out to get a good reception. Note in a year, their iron horse sells 10 thousand units per year.
That number is quite good because the conditions at that time were still difficult after the war. Unfortunately Toyo Motor did not last long, because they were out of business in 1960. There was no information that could be sure why could go out of business, allegedly because of experiencing various obstacles, including in product development.
In comparison, two years before Toyo Motors went bankrupt, Honda launched its first motorcycle in 1958. This model became the forerunner of the Honda motorcycle business until now, including motorbikes that are widely used by people in Indonesia.
