Born in 1922 on Kyushu Island which is west of the Japanese mainland, Hideo Yoshimura grew up as an ambitious young boy with dreams of becoming an aeroplane pilot. A year after joining flight school as a teenager Hideo suffered a near fatal aeroplane accident when the engine of the small plane he was co-piloting in caught fire and everyone was given the order to bail out of the plane!

After he recovered and returned to his home he followed his passion for aviation and became an aircraft mechanic and worked his was into becoming an engineer. He survived the WW2 years and his ability to speak English contributed to his journey of opening a little bike shop that ended up being called Yoshimura Motors.

Over the years he began designing and engineering motorcycle parts for race bikes and eventually got into performance motorcycle exhaust systems. Their passion for engineering exellence and competitive performance has seen the Yoshimura brand remain closely aligned to the racing industry both on road and offroad and they have contributed to achieving countless race wins and chanmpionship titles over the years.