Yanmar Co., Ltd. (ヤンマー株式会社, Yanmā Kabushiki-Gaisha) is a Japanese company involved in the manufacture and sales of engines, agricultural machinery and light ships. Yanmar's headquarters are at 1-32 Chayamachi in the Kita ward of the Japanese city of Osaka. Yanmar is the patron of the J. League soccer team Cerezo Osaka and for the Yanbo Marbo weather forecast programme on Japanese television.

Originally, the company planned to trade under the name "Tonbo", meaning "dragonfly", as dragonflies are a symbol of agriculture in Japan. However, this trademark was already registered to a Shizuoka soy sauce maker. Therefore, the name was changed to "Oniyanma" (Anotogaster sieboldii), the largest of all dragonflies in Japan. It is said that in the end, the name was also selected because it sounded similar to the surname of the company's founder, Yamaoka Magokichi. It is likely that the "oni" was dropped because it means "devil" or "demon" in Japanese.

Yanmar is for the most part a corporation specializing in diesel engines, and also makes light fishing boats. In recent years Yanmar has started sales of hulls for ships. Manufacturing tractors, combine harvesters, rice-planting machines, and Heavy Utility Machinery. Yanmar ranks along with Kubota and Iseki & Co. as one of the top brands of agricultural machinery in Japan. Yanmar was the first to put a diesel engine in a rice planting machine with a passenger seat.

Yanmar's flagship product in the construction machinery business is light hydraulic shovels. In recent years, Yanmar has also manufactured industrial power generators and small- to medium-sized snow removal machines. In typical Yanmar fashion, some of the smaller snow removal machines feature light, air-cooled diesel engines. In 2007, the Yanmar Model HB horizontal diesel engine (made in 1933) was added to the Mechanical Engineering Heritage of Japan.

Timeline

1912 Yamaoka Magokichi sets up business under the name Yamaoka Engine Workshop.

1931 Inauguration of Yamaoka Engine Workshop limited.

1936 Inauguration of Yamaoka Internal Combustion Machines limited.

1940 Yamaoka Internal Combustion Machines amalgamates with Yamaoka Engine Workshop.

1952 Company name changes to Yanmar Diesel limited.

2002 Company name changes to Yanmar limited.

Media programmes sponsored by Yanmar

Yanbo Marbo Weather Forecast (ヤン坊マー坊天気予報, Yanbo-marbo tenki yoho)

Yanmar Sponsored Fuji TV News (ヤンマー提供FTVニュース, Yanmar teikyo FTV nyusu) on Fuji News Network.

Yanmar Family Hour (ヤンマーファミリーアワー, Yanmar famiri awa) on Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, including

• Fly Songoku! (飛べ!孫悟空, tobe songoku), a puppet show based on the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West.
• The Chance! (ザ・チャンス!, za chiansu), an American Price is Right style game show.

Source: wikipedia.org

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