The birth of Tohatsu began back in 1922 with research and development of many small petrol engines for various applications.
Originally named Takata Motor Research Institute in 1922. It then later changed to Tokyo Hatsudoki Co Ltd (roughly translating to ‘Tokyo Engine Factory’) in 1939, hence the now the acronym company name of ‘TOHATSU‘.
In 1949 the company expanded further with the development and production of two stroke motorcycles which saw an aggressive growth for the company. Due to the success of the motorcycles, dealerships were quickly set up throughout Japan. By the mid 1950’s Tohatsu held the top market share with 22% of the Japanese motorcycle market, selling both domestically and globally. Tohatsu also produced racing motorcycles which achieved great success in Japan and beyond.
1956 saw Tohatsu produce the very first Japanese outboard motor the ‘OB2‘. Since then, Tohatsu outboards have been serving a variety of markets such as commercial fishing, military, marine transport, surf life saving, maritime rescue services, recreation and competition racing just to name a few. Tohatsu outboard’s have been so successful with their outboard motors that they are now making products for other well know brands too.
Tohatsu are officially the second largest producer of outboard motors in the world. All of their four and two stroke models are still manufactured solely in Japan rather than following the trend of other brands of outsourcing manufacturing to other countries such as China and Thailand etc. Tohatsu feel that by keeping production in Japan they can keep strict quality control at source, allowing them to live up to the “Made in Japan” quality we all know and trust today.
