While primarily a showcase for cars, the Tokyo Motor Show also has motorcycle manufacturers taking the stands. Aside from Honda with the Neo Sports Concept and Kawasaki with the retro-style Z900RS scheduled for this year’s event, Yamaha will also be in attendance with an exhibit theme “Yamaha Future Garage: Resonate the Future.”

Looking like something from the imagination of manga artist Masamune Shirow is the Motoroid, which draws inspiration from the realm of artificial intelligence. The Motoroid is capable of recognising its owner, and is meant to provide a feeling of Kando, a Japanese word meaning “feelings of deep satisfaction and intense excitement” when encountering something of value.


Subject of a previous article on paultan.org, the Motobot Ver.2 is a Yamaha R1-M superbike mounted by a robot rider. Having undergone testing in 2016, Motobot’s target for 2017 is to top 280 km/h and surpass Valentino Rossi’s record time at the Yamaha test track.

In the urban mobility arena, Yamaha has designed the MWC-4, a four-wheeled, Leaning Multi-Wheel (LMW) vehicle. Constructed to accommodate a passenger and a driver, the MWC-4 is powered by a an electric motor equipped with a range-extender and uses attitude-control technology which provides more comfort than a motorcycle, but leans into corners the same way.


For electrical power assisted bicycles (e-bicycle), Yamaha is putting forward the YPJ-XC, based on the YPJ-MTB concept e-bicycle that was first shown in the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show. The YPJ-XC carries Yamaha’s latest PW-X drive unit and is claimed to be closer to a production-ready model.