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At the height of the struggle for the purity of their native language and the prohibition of the Latin alphabet, “SANYO” advertising posters appeared on the streets of Moscow - that is, in Russian, in Cyrillic alphabet. Even more ridiculous looked attempts to convey in motorcycle style the motorcycle abbreviations: "IgrekZetEf-Ar1". What time! Anyone guess what this is about?
And the same Japanese in this respect are not a bit steaming. Open any of their magazines: it is so full of Latin letters and English words that you can understand everything without knowing a hieroglyph. And who dares to deny that Japan has a great and distinctive culture? However, there is a lot of clicks everywhere - and here are full of lamenting eternal Japanese values (well, there are samurai, hara-kiri) who fell under the onslaught of Hollywood and "Dirol".
But the love of Japanese managers for the Latin alphabet is by no means based on frenzied unpatriotic behavior. Back in the 50s, they realized that for a 100 millionth country, glorious for the absolute absence of fossil resources, there are only two options: export or die. And if you export, say, the same motorcycles and make inscriptions in hieroglyphs, then who in America or Germany will unleash this bond? And what if they suddenly think that on the tank it says: “Die, a pale-faced dog”? In addition, in any Japanese company, the lineup is immense, and each machine must somehow be called. But if with regard to scooters the tradition of calling each model with its own name is still respected, then motorcycles strive to call something like XTZFY … Ho xaoc these letters are only apparent.
Firstly, each manufacturer has its own favorite letter, which does not necessarily coincide with the name of the company. Only Yamaha for half a century has remained faithful to the "Y" - the designation of almost every model begins with it. At Kawasaki we will find a “K,” but by no means always - only off-road vehicles and old 2-stroke cars. But road 4-stroke motorcycles - they are all with the letter "Z". Why? There is a story here.