Undoubtedly most of you have seen or heard about the devastation in northeastern Japan brought about by last week’s magnitude 9.0 megathrust earthquake and subsequent tsunami.  Images of cars, trucks, boats and even buildings tossed around like toys in a bathtub will haunt the memories of a lot of people, especially those who witnessed the devastation first hand.  Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes, and entire cities have been washed away.  Several nuclear power plants have been shut down or even worse, and power is scarce throughout the country.  With a large portion of Japan’s industrial sectors damaged by this quake and a pending nuclear disaster threatening to reduce power production for months to come, there will undoubtedly be a major impact on the motorcycle industry.   So far, three of the big four motorcycle manufactures have released information regarding the status of their operations:

• Honda:

  Honda has halted production in all six of it’s Japanese facilities, including their motorcycle factory in Kumamoto.  Honda’s plants in the Tochigi Prefecture, including an auto parts factory and an R&D facility, will be shut down until at least March 20th.  A 43 year old man was killed at the Honda R&D facility in Tochigi when a wall collapsed on him.  17 other employees were injured at that facility during the quake.  Honda has donated approximately 3.7 million dollars to the relief efforts as well as 1,000 generators and 5,000 fuel containers.  The official Honda news release can be found here.

• Yamaha:

  Yamaha reports that it’s manufacturing facilities have not sustained significant damage from the quake.  Rolling blackouts due to the resulting energy shortage may force Yamaha to halt production at some non motorcycle producing factories.  Some sales offices and retailers sustained damage in Sendai, and Yamaha has been unable to contact one employee working for a subsidiary company. Read the Effects of the Pacific Earthquake on Yamaha Corporation (Adobe Acrobat Reader required to read this document).

• Suzuki:

  Suzuki has suspended production at six of it’s factories, including plants in Takatsuka and Toyokawa.  The Takutsuka plant produces motorcycle engines and the Toyokawa plant is for motorcycle production and assembly.  Suzuki has announced that production in these plants will be halted until at least March 17th, at which point the company will assess the damage and evaluate whether it is possible to resume production.

• Kawasaki:

  At the time of this writing, Kawasaki has not released any announcements regarding it’s operational status.

Regardless of what bike you ride (or even if you ride), you have to appreciate what the Japanese motorcycle industry has brought to the world of motorcycling.  They helped to bring motorcycling to the mainstream, and without them we would undoubtedly not have the incredible machines and technology that we have available to us today.  So here’s to a speedy recovery for the Japanese motorcycle industry and the entire nation of Japan!

As a final note, I would like to express my sincerest sympathies and prayers to all of those who lost their life, loved ones, homes or property as a result of this horrific tragedy.  I also urge those who can to please make a donation to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake Relief Effort to help those affected by this disaster.