KAWAMURAPRIDE

KAWAMURA CYCLEHISTORY

History of Kawamura Cycle

KOBE JAPAN

Kawamura Cycle was established in Kobe in 1995, the year of the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Ever since, the company has been walking together with this city as it recovers from the disaster.
The various thoughts we experienced at every step have supported the way we manufacture our products.

1915

Prologue

Kawamura Cycle’s historical roots

Koichi Kawamura started the company in 1915 as an individual enterprise building bicycles. From its humble beginnings in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, the business grew into the bicycle manufacturer Kawamura Industries Co., Ltd., and eventually changed its trading name to Kawamura Cycle Co., Ltd. Applying our advanced technological prowess, we developed top-class road racers and mountain bikes under the “NISHIKI” brand. These cycles gained a reputation as premium bicycles.

1995

Birth

Transforming from a bicycle builder to a wheelchair manufacturer

In 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck alongside a structural recession in the bicycle industry, and our headquarters and factory suffered catastrophic damage, causing a sharp slowdown in business.

At that time, Tamio Murayama (founder), who was working to reconstruct the business, recognized a bright future in wheelchairs to secure employment and the company’s future. At the time, wheelchairs accounted for less than 10% of sales, but the company reemerged from the rubble as a dedicated wheelchair manufacturer with 40 employees.

We adopted 7000-series aluminum, the strongest aluminum alloy used for mountain bikes, for wheelchairs. This reduced the weight of wheelchairs produced at the time by more than 30%, mass-producing these aluminum wheelchairs set the company’s business back on track.

Revolution

Aspiring to create user-friendly wheelchairs

As the latest manufacturer in the wheelchair industry, Kawamura Cycle leverages the technological strength gained through building premium-quality bicycles to develop products using concepts and perspectives that break the conventional rules. By focusing on the perspectives of the people who use our wheelchairs, we have pioneered many inventions ahead of others in the industry.

Today, Kawamura Cycle is pursuing and promoting wheelchair designs that are even easier to use and understand, and more comfortable, as assistive products for people with disabilities.

As Kawamura Cycle’s mission statement proclaims, "We always strive to advance." This means that we will constantly push the limits of knowledge and boldly challenge ourselves, our credo since rebirth in 1995.

We will never give up aspiring to reach the next stage.

Toward the next stage

KOBE JAPAN

The motto for the next stage...

Valuing the warm feeling of helping people as a maker of assistive products for people with disabilities, and stoking the passion to continue evolving them as industrial products that will deliver greater safety and security. Kawamura Cycle believes this is what embodies the Kobe brand and Japanese Quality.