Yaskawa Motoman Company Profile: History, Structure, Financials, Products, Leadership and Stock
Updated: 7 days ago
Yaskawa Electric Corporation is a Japanese mechatronics company with revenue of JPY 542.1 billion, 12,483 employees and more than 600,000 Motoman industrial robots installed worldwide. Founded in 1915, it built Japan's first all-electric industrial robot and names three products in which it competes globally: industrial robots, AC servo drives and AC drives. This profile sets out Yaskawa's history, structure, results by segment and region, its new long-term plan, production network, leading products, management, shareholders and share data.
Yaskawa at a Glance
Fact | Detail |
Company | YASKAWA Electric Corporation; robots carry the MOTOMAN brand |
Founded | July 16, 1915, by Daigoro Yasukawa |
Head office | 2-1 Kurosaki Shiroishi, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan |
Capital | JPY 30.6 billion |
Employees | 12,483 consolidated, as of February 28, 2026 |
Revenue | JPY 542.1 billion in the fiscal year to February 28, 2026 |
Operating profit | JPY 47.3 billion, a margin of 8.7% |
Segments | Motion Control, Robotics, System Engineering, Other |
Footprint | Business locations in about 30 countries; 25 production sites in 13 countries |
Installed base | More than 600,000 robots, 25 million servos and 35 million inverter drives |
Stock listing | Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6506 |
Chairman and President | Hiroshi Ogasawara |
Company History: From Induction Motors to Mechatronics
Yaskawa Electric was established in 1915 in Kurosaki, Kitakyushu, in the industrial north of the island of Kyushu. Its first order, delivered in 1917, was a 20 horsepower three-phase induction motor, and for decades the company's business was motors and their control for steel plants and heavy industry. In 1935 it delivered a 4,000 horsepower synchronous motor to the Yahata steel works.
The turn toward precision motion came in 1958 with the Minertia motor, the prototype of Yaskawa's servo motors. In the 1960s the company commercialized early robotic fingers and arms and proposed the concept of the unmanned factory. It registered MECHATRONICS as a trademark in 1972, a word that has since become a general engineering term. In 1977 it completed the MOTOMAN-L10, Japan's first all-electric industrial robot system.
Key milestones
1915: Yaskawa Electric established in Kitakyushu.
1917: First product delivered, a 20 HP three-phase induction motor.
1958: Minertia motor invented.
1972: MECHATRONICS registered as a trademark.
1977: MOTOMAN-L10, Japan's first all-electric industrial robot system.
1979: VS-626TV, the world's first vector-control AC drive.
1989: Motoman is founded in the United States.
1992: Sales of the Sigma series AC servo drives begin.
2003: MECHATROLINK motion networking introduced.
2012: The SDA dual-arm robot is developed, and YASKAWA (China) Robotics is established in Changzhou as the first overseas robot production base.
2015: 100th anniversary, new head office and new logo.
2017: The i3-Mechatronics solution concept is proposed.
2018: The Yaskawa Solution Factory, the mother factory for servos, becomes fully operational.
2019: YASKAWA Europe Robotics in Slovenia begins producing industrial robots.
2025: Yaskawa America announces a new campus and robot manufacturing in Franklin, Wisconsin.
2026: The company announces Vision 2035 and the Dash 35 mid-term plan.
Corporate Structure and Shareholders
Yaskawa is an independent listed company with no parent. According to market data, institutions hold about 58% of the shares and the general public about 42%. The largest holders are Nomura Asset Management with about 8.5%, BlackRock with about 5.2% and Vanguard with about 3.7%, followed by Japanese financial institutions including Mizuho Financial Group and Meiji Yasuda Life. The company is governed by a board with an Audit and Supervisory Committee.
Regional organization
Japan: head office and robot production in Kitakyushu, and the Yaskawa Solution Factory for servos.
Yaskawa America, Inc.: two divisions. The Motoman Robotics Division is headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, with manufacturing, research and training on site and regional centers in Michigan and California. The Drives and Motion Division makes control products, servo motors and inverters.
Canada, Mexico and Brazil: Yaskawa Canada in Mississauga, Yaskawa Mexico in Aguascalientes with offices in Monterrey and Queretaro, and an operation in Sao Paulo.
Europe: YASKAWA Europe Robotics in Slovenia has built industrial robots since 2019.
China: YASKAWA (China) Robotics in Changzhou, the first robot plant outside Japan.
Financial Performance
Yaskawa's fiscal year runs from March to February. In the year that ended on February 28, 2026 revenue rose 0.8% to JPY 542.1 billion, while operating profit fell 5.7% to JPY 47.3 billion and profit attributable to owners of the parent fell 38.2% to JPY 35.2 billion. Overseas markets generated JPY 393.7 billion, about 73% of revenue.
Revenue and operating profit by segment
Segment | Revenue | Change | Operating profit | Margin |
Robotics | JPY 247.0 billion | +4.0% | JPY 20.4 billion | 8.3% |
Motion Control | JPY 236.1 billion | -1.1% | JPY 24.4 billion | 10.3% |
System Engineering | JPY 38.7 billion | +1.0% | JPY 5.0 billion | 12.9% |
Other | JPY 20.3 billion | -12.3% | JPY 2.0 billion | 9.8% |
Robotics is now Yaskawa's largest segment by revenue, ahead of Motion Control, although its profit fell 14% in the year.
Revenue by region
Region | Revenue | Change |
Japan | JPY 148.4 billion | -0.6% |
The Americas | JPY 128.5 billion | -0.7% |
China | JPY 116.1 billion | +2.6% |
Asia excluding China | JPY 81.0 billion | +11.1% |
Europe, Middle East and Africa | JPY 68.1 billion | -6.6% |
Orders and forecast
Orders recovered through the year, from a 6% decline in the first quarter to growth of 20% in the fourth, when Motion Control orders rose 47% and Robotics orders fell 7%. For the fiscal year to February 2027 Yaskawa forecasts revenue of JPY 580.0 billion and operating profit of JPY 60.0 billion, with Motion Control expected to grow 18.6% and Robotics to decline 2.8%. The dividend was JPY 68 per share, with JPY 72 forecast. The equity ratio stood at 59.5%.
Strategy: Vision 2035 and Dash 35
In May 2026 Yaskawa published a long-term plan, Vision 2035, and a four-year plan, Dash 35, covering the fiscal years 2026 to 2029. The five policies of Dash 35 are to develop the physical AI market, expand implementation of i3-Mechatronics, develop world-leading new products, expand into new applications of mechatronics, and advance the company's digital transformation.
Target | Latest result | Fiscal 2027 | Fiscal 2029 |
Revenue | JPY 542.1 billion | JPY 600.0 billion | JPY 650.0 billion |
Operating profit | JPY 47.3 billion | JPY 72.0 billion | JPY 100.0 billion |
Operating margin | 8.7% | 12.0% | 15.4% |
The plan includes cumulative investment of JPY 250.0 billion over four years, of which JPY 130.0 billion is capital expenditure and JPY 120.0 billion strategic investment. Vision 2035 sets a longer-term goal of an operating profit ratio of 20% or more. New sectors named in the plan include agriculture and medicine.
Business Segments
Motion Control: AC servo motors and controllers account for 51% of the segment and AC drives for 49%. Servo customers are makers of semiconductor and display equipment, chip mounters, machine tools and injection molding machines. Drives go into elevators and escalators, air conditioning, textile machines and port cranes.
Robotics: arc welding, spot welding, painting and handling robots, collaborative robots, AI robots such as MOTOMAN NEXT, semiconductor wafer transfer robots and biomedical robots.
System Engineering: electrical systems for steel plants, port material handling, and water supply and sewage facilities.
Yaskawa's Leading Products
Product | Type | Notes |
MOTOMAN arc welding robots | Six-axis robot | A core application, with controller functions that adjust the torch angle to reduce spatter |
MOTOMAN spot welding robots | Heavy payload robot | Carry heavy welding guns for car body assembly |
MOTOMAN handling and assembly robots | Small six-axis robot | Payloads typically under 10 kg with human-arm reach |
MOTOMAN collaborative robots | Cobot | Built-in safety functions for work beside people without fencing |
MOTOMAN NEXT | AI robot platform | Autonomous control unit running Wind River Linux on NVIDIA Jetson Orin |
Palletizing, press handling and painting robots | Application robots | End-of-line, press shop and paint shop automation |
Semiconductor wafer and glass substrate transfer robots | Clean robot | Handling of 300 mm wafers and large display glass |
Biomedical robots | Laboratory robot | Genomic analysis, PCR testing and drug discovery |
Sigma series | AC servo drive | Sold since 1992 |
AC drives | Inverter | Yaskawa launched the first vector-control AC drive in 1979 |
MECHATROLINK | Motion network | Open field network introduced in 2003 |
Yaskawa Motoman lists more than 150 distinct articulated, delta and SCARA robot models, plus pre-engineered cells sold under World names.
Yaskawa product reviews on All Things Cobots
Notable Projects and Investments
Franklin, Wisconsin campus: announced in 2025, the campus will exceed 800,000 square feet of manufacturing, packaging and training space and become the North American headquarters of the Drives and Motion Division. It includes a planned robot factory, the first time Yaskawa's high-volume industrial robots will be built in the United States. Trade press reported the investment at USD 180 million.
Miamisburg, Ohio: the Motoman Robotics Division remains in its recently expanded headquarters and integration facility, where robots from Wisconsin will be built into complete systems.
Slovenia: European robot production since 2019.
Changzhou, China: the company's first overseas robot production base, established in 2012.
MOTOMAN NEXT: a robot series that adapts to its surroundings, plans paths around obstacles and handles items that vary in shape and color, tasks that previously needed human judgment.
Yaskawa Solution Factory: the servo mother factory in Japan, the reference site for the i3-Mechatronics concept.
Leadership and Management
Name | Role |
Hiroshi Ogasawara | Representative Director, Chairman of the Board and President, Yaskawa Electric |
Mike Knapek | Chief Executive Officer, Yaskawa America |
The company's investor guide of July 2026 lists Hiroshi Ogasawara as both chairman and president.
Stock Information
Item | Detail |
Listing | Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6506; also listed in Fukuoka |
Market capitalization | About USD 7.8 billion in October 2026 |
Share price | Equivalent to about USD 30 in October 2026 |
One-year change | Up about 15% |
Index | Nikkei 225 |
Dividend | JPY 68 per share for the latest year; JPY 72 forecast |
Note: share prices are indicative figures as of early October 2026 and change daily. This section is general information, not investment advice.
Strengths and Challenges
Strengths
Its own servo motors, drives and controllers inside its robots.
A large installed base: more than 600,000 robots, 25 million servos and 35 million drives.
Robot production in Japan, China and Europe, with the United States to follow.
A balanced regional mix, with 73% of revenue from outside Japan.
A solid balance sheet, with an equity ratio near 60%.
Challenges
An operating margin of 8.7%, well below its own 2029 target of 15.4%.
Falling robot profit and a forecast decline in robot revenue for the current year.
Weak demand in Europe, where revenue fell 6.6%.
Dependence on semiconductor and machine tool investment cycles in Motion Control.
Outlook
Yaskawa has tied its next decade to physical AI: robots that perceive and decide for themselves, sold together with its servos and drives as connected systems. Meeting the Dash 35 targets would mean doubling operating profit in four years, which depends on a recovery in semiconductor-related demand and on MOTOMAN NEXT finding a market beyond conventional factory tasks.
Current Catalogue Coverage
Catalogue checked on 15 October 2026: 71 associated product records. The links below are representative entries, rather than a claim that every historical model is currently available.
Yaskawa FAQ
What is the difference between Yaskawa and Motoman?
Yaskawa Electric Corporation is the company and MOTOMAN is the brand of its industrial robots. In the Americas the robot business operates as the Motoman Robotics Division of Yaskawa America, based in Miamisburg, Ohio.
Who owns Yaskawa?
Yaskawa Electric is an independent, publicly traded company. Institutions hold about 58% of its shares, and no shareholder holds 10% or more.
Is Yaskawa publicly traded?
Yes. Yaskawa Electric is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the code 6506.
When was Yaskawa founded?
On July 16, 1915, in Kitakyushu, Japan. Its first all-electric robot, the MOTOMAN-L10, was completed in 1977.
How big is Yaskawa?
Revenue was JPY 542.1 billion in the fiscal year to February 2026, with 12,483 employees. Robotics contributed JPY 247.0 billion.
Where are Motoman robots made?
In Kitakyushu, Japan, in Changzhou, China, and in Slovenia. A robot factory in Franklin, Wisconsin, has been announced.
How many robots has Yaskawa installed?
More than 600,000 Motoman industrial robots, according to Yaskawa Motoman.
Who leads Yaskawa Electric?
Hiroshi Ogasawara is Representative Director, Chairman of the Board and President.
Sources
Yaskawa: corporate data
Yaskawa: history
Yaskawa: financial results for fiscal 2025
Yaskawa: investor's guide, July 2026
Yaskawa: robotics products
Yaskawa Motoman: about
Yaskawa America: robotics manufacturing expansion in Franklin, Wisconsin
The Manufacturer: Yaskawa America announces USD 180 million investment in Wisconsin
The Robot Report: MOTOMAN NEXT runs on Wind River Linux
