Yanmar was founded by Magokichi Yamaoka who was the 9th child out of 10 siblings. He was born in a village called Minami Tominaga which is located in Shiga, Japan, Magokichi helped his father and siblings on their farm, but at the age of 16 he decided he wanted to elevate his lifestyle, do more with his life, move away from the village and go to the city to work as an apprentice. Magokichi went to search for a job matching his skills and he started working for a knitting business and various other jobs including a soap shop, cotton dealer, photograph mounting store, and a plumbing company. After 2 years he got sick due to the amount of work he was putting in, so he took a break from work and went to stay at his brother’s house where they used to go fishing, on one of these fishing trips he made friends with workers from Osaka gas which gave him the opportunity to work at with them as a gas plumber in 1905. As he was working as a gas plumber he learned more about installing gas engines and he further understood the structure and principles of these engines, and that is when he decided to start his own company using the technologies he learned.

In 1906 he quit his job and started his own business of selling rubber pipes, installing gas engines, and working as a gas equipment contractor, and in 1907 he opened Yamaoka Gas Shokai. The Russo-Japanese war increased his sales as the use of gas was spreading throughout Japan. In 1912 he founded a factory to repair and rebuild gas engines after getting a new business idea while he was doing his work when he saw a gas engine that was abandoned and broken, and he wanted to fix it then resell it, this was the beginning of Yanmar as Yamaoka Hatsudoki Kosakusho. A few years later a new era started where electricity was the main source of energy so many businesses were moving away from producing gas engines, while Magokichi continued his business of working with gas engines, and with the start of world war I the demand for engines grew and so was Yanmar until the cease fire happened followed by a recession, and that’s when he decided to take a break from his business.

After moving back to Osaka he met with his old colleague from Osaka gas, and that’s when another new business idea popped in his head. Magokichi decided to make oil engines which are durable but also light weight. The prototype he created was only 110 kg and much smaller than other oil engines making it easier to transport. In 1920 his prototypes were able to succeed in all the tests and he made a 3 horse power oil engine that was released in 1921, and this is where Yanmar was born. Magokichi continued inventing and producing agricultural equipment which helped people do their jobs in a more productive way. However, in 1929 Yanmar faced an issue of farmers not buying his machinery as often because of the recession and the prices of crops dropping, so he needed to find a new business idea again.
In 1932 he visited the world’s largest trade show which was held in Germany, but he was only attracted to engines, and that is where he learnt about diesel engines and its benefits, he was fascinated about the durability, safety, and cost effectiveness of diesel engines and so he wanted to implement it in his agricultural machines, but he couldn’t find any engines small enough for what he needed it for, and that’s when he started producing his own small diesel engines. Magokichi started working on downsizing the diesel engine, but after many trials and errors he wanted to quit production as his engineers kept failing to make a small enough diesel engine and he was worried about running out of funds, but his engineers had already become obsessed about making this work as it was a test of their skills and did not care about running out of funds, so they continued redesigning and creating prototypes.In 1933, they were finally able to create the world’s first compact diesel engine. He started producing 100 units per month and ramped it up to 30,000 units per year while he continued to design an even smaller engine named the S-model. Magokichi ended his oil engine business in 1937 to focus on diesel engine production and design, so his company name changed from Yamaoka Hatsudoki Kosakushi to Yamaoka Nainenki Kabushikigaisha.

After World War II Magokichi moved his production to the countryside as many plants, factories, and places were destroyed by the war. He continued the production and design of compact diesel engines that were used for multiple industries including agriculture, construction, power generation, fisheries, and more. Yanmar started expanding by producing and selling its products abroad, and they even won an award (The diesel gold medal award) in 1955 by the German Inventors Association. Their K1 engine model was even displayed next to the 1st generation diesel engine created in the German museum.

The company continued to grow, develop, and design. Today they are working towards a more sustainable future by producing more advanced technologies for all kinds of industries.