Michio Suzuki founded Suzuki Loom Company in 1909 and built weaving looms for the silk industry. In the late 1930s, Suzuki started to build compact cars due to customer demand. The loom industry however was booming but Suzuki just went to diversify.

The cotton market collapsed in 1951 and so Suzuki started to produce motors that would clip onto bicycles. In 1954 Suzuki offically changed the name to "Suzuki Motor Co., Ltd" and was producing 6,000 motorcycles per month.