Last November was the 40th anniversary of the acquisition of Sanglas, one of the first Spanish motorcycle manufacturing brands born in Barcelona in 1942. For Yamaha, whose Spanish headquarters have been located in the Catalan capital since then, the absorption of this company created from the efforts of two engineering student brothers, meant the entry into the Spanish market and the birth of a new family around the values transmitted by the then president of the company, Genichi Kawakami (Japan, 1919-2002).

A driving force behind the creation of Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd., it was under Kawakami's leadership that motorcycle manufacturing entered the company as a new line of business. Bold like few others, Kawakami was determined to create a motorcycle that would add value to the existing market. His desire was to create something new and unique without sacrificing values such as honesty and hard work.

Yamaha acquired Sanglas in 1981 when the Catalan company had few resources to cope with the innovation that the market demanded at that time, and despite its consolidation after the success of the SANGLAS 400 model. Key in the pedagogy of Spanish society regarding the use of motorcycles, thirty years after its founding, Sanglas had more duties and obligations than satisfactions. "Walk with your predecessors and forge the future with your colleagues around the world", was one of the slogans that Mr. Kawakami left written in Yamaha's history. Tradition, identity and respect are the foundations of Yamaha's journey through almost 70 years of history and are still very much present in the Global Yamaha Motor Group.

The fortieth anniversary of the acquisition of Sanglas is a tribute to these values and an event that invites us to look back on the road we have traveled to reach a present of consolidation of our brand around the principles that meet in what we now call The Global Yamaha Way.