Meguro Manufacturing

Native name	目黒製作所
Romanized name	Meguro Seisakusho
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	Meguro, Tokyo, Japan August 1924 (1924-08)
Founder	Nobuji Murata Takatsugu Suzuki
Defunct	October 1964 (1964-10)
Fate	Merged intoKawasaki Heavy Industries
Area served	Japan
Products	Motorcycles,gearboxes

Meguro (Japanese:メグロ) is a brand of motorcycles originally built byMeguro Manufacturing (目黒製作所,Meguro Seisakusho) before the company was absorbed intoKawasaki Heavy Industries. Once aprestige brand, supplying the Japanese government with military and police motorcycles and racing alongsideHonda, Meguro becamebankrupt after launching a range of lightweight motorcycles which sold poorly, and experiencing a yearlongstrike.

TheSociety of Automotive Engineers of Japan rates the 1937 Meguro Z97 as one of their240 Landmarks of Japanese Automotive Technology.^[1]

Meguro Manufacturing was founded byNobuji Murata [ja] and Takatsugu Suzuki in 1924 to produce motorcycle parts for the nascent Japanese motorcycle industry. Named aftera district of Tokyo, Meguro had its roots in Murata Iron Works, which was established in 1922. After the1929 Wall Street crash, Meguro invested inHarley-Davidson and obtained drawings, tooling and important knowledge of metalheat treatments in order to makegearboxes. These were then used in their vehicles and those of another early Japanese company calledRikuo (陸王; "Land King"). The resulting transfer of Americanintellectual property taught the Japanese how to produce motorcycles in quantity.

In 1935, Meguro debuted the 500 ccsingle-powered Z97, based on a SwissMotosacoche design, but production was restricted due to the start ofWorld War II,^[2] during which the company supplied aircraft parts. Meguro started full production again in 1948, the Z97 being joined by models with 125 cc, 250 cc and 350 ccoverhead valve singles. In the 1950s, Meguro enteredracing and built its first twin-cylinder design, the 651 cc T1 "Senior", with a British-inspiredpre-unitparallel twin engine, and later the K series "Stamina" model, a copy of theBSA A7, one of which Meguro had bought in 1953. Its quality and engineering were superior to that of the BSA,^[3] and it was described by British motorcycle designerEdward Turner as "too good to be true".^{[citation needed]} For the first time, the Japanese motorcycle industry was seen as a threat.^[4] Its other models, designed in collaboration withKawasaki, were entirely of Japanese design. Meguro raced their 500 ccoverhead camshaft single at the Asama Kazanspeedway inTsumagoi,Gunma.^[5] For many years, the company was only outsold by Honda.^[6]In 1958, Meguro developed a range of 50 cc, 125 cc, 250 cc and 350 cc consumer products, which failed to sell due to being too expensive.^[7] By 1960, Meguro was Japan's longest-running motorcycle company out of the hundreds that had once flourished producing copies of European models. The company had become affiliated with Kawasaki; it first changed its name in 1962 to Kawasaki-Meguro, which produced the successful 125 cc B8.^[7] Then, in October 1964, seeing the commercial and marketing value of a motorcycle division and Meguro's established sales outlets alongside itsheavy industry operations,^[8] Kawasaki took full control of the company.^[7][9]

"Kawasaki-Meguro Works"-branded 125 cc, 175 cc and 250 cc single-powered motorcycles continued to be sold until 1969. The 500 cc K series twin-cylinder model was later enlarged and developed into the 625 ccKawasaki W series, which would see use as an official vehicle for government purposes.^[10]

In 1999, Kawasaki launched the 675 cc parallel-twinW650 withretro styling inspired by the Kawasaki W2,^[11] and the 250 ccfour stroke single-cylinder Meguro-inspiredEstrella. Kawasaki discontinued the W650 in 2007, but replaced it in 2011 with an enlarged version, the 773 ccW800.

On December 8, 2020, Kawasaki announced the revival of the Meguro brand with a new model—the W800-based K3—available on February 1, 2021. Both the K3 and W800 are mechanically identical, but the K3 is visually distinct and priced higher.^[12] The K3 was followed by the S1, a 250 cc single based on the Kawasaki W230, in late 2024.^[13]

• Motorcycles of Japan
• Motorcycles by brand
• Motorcycle manufacturers of Japan
• Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Tokyo

• CS1 maint: url-status
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Japanese-language text
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from September 2012