Moriwaki

Moriwaki Engineering Co., Ltd.

Moriwaki MD250H
Type	Private
Industry	Transportation
Founded	September 30, 1973
Headquarters	Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan
Area served	10+ countries and regions including North America, Europe and Australia
Key people	Mamoru Moriwaki, Founder and Representative Director Namiko Moriwaki, Senior Managing Director Midori Moriwaki, Managing Director
Products	Motorbikes
Revenue	10,000,000 JPY
Website	Moriwaki Engineering

Moriwaki Engineering Co.,Ltd is a Japanese specialty engineering company that designs, manufactures and sells high performance parts for motorcycles and cars. Moriwaki Engineering was founded in 1973 by Mamoru Moriwaki in Suzuka City, Japan.

Moriwaki began his career as a motorcycle racer for Hideo "Pops" Yoshimura, a respected motorcycle mechanic and tuner involved in Japanese motorcycle racing. Moriwaki received no formal training in engineering while working for Yoshimura. Instead, he became self-taught, learning about mechanical engineering from books borrowed from his local high school. Moriwaki married Namiko Yoshimura, Pops’ eldest daughter, while he was working for the company. In 1971, Yoshimura made the decision to move his company to the United States to take advantage of the burgeoning American motorcycle market. Moriwaki did not agree with Yoshimura and refused to leave his home in Japan. This created a rift between the two men however, within a year Yoshimura had returned to Japan and sought Moriwaki for help after he had been cheated out of all his money in a business transaction in America. Moriwaki loaned Yoshimura money to re-establish himself. Yoshimura would go on to establish one of the premier manufacturers of motorcycle high performance parts in the United States and became closely associated with the Suzuki racing program.

Moriwaki remained in Japan and became known for modifying engines and constructing frames for the Kawasaki Z1. His bikes were successfully raced in the Australian Superbike championships in the late 1970s by New Zealander Graeme Crosby. Crosby and co-rider Tony Hatton finished in third place at the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in 1978. Moriwaki's reputation continued to be enhanced when Crosby and Akitaka Tomie qualified a Moriwaki Kawasaki on pole position at the 1979 Suzuka 8 Hours, ahead of all the major factory racing teams. At the 1980 Suzuka 8 Hours race, the Moriwaki team of Dave Aldana and David Emde qualified in a respectable second place ahead of the official Kawasaki factory-backed team of Eddie Lawson and Gregg Hansford.