Motorbike Insurance

Yamaha Motor's president has accused computer games and concerned mothers for a drop in Japanese motorbike sales.

Speaking to The Times, Takashi Kajikawa yearned for the good old days of inner city biker gangs saying: "It's not like the old days when young Japanese boys joined biker gangs. It wasn't so good for the public image but it was good for sales.

"Nowadays, their mothers think it's too dangerous and forbid their sons to buy bikes. And anyway, youngsters would prefer to stay in and play on their computers."

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The recent increases in fuel prices have seen Yamaha's bike and scooter sales soar by nearly a third in the last three years.

However, Japan represents one of a handful of markets that have seen bike sales fall and domestic sales now count for only 10 per cent of the company's total.

Yamaha is now pinning its hopes in a sales recovery on a large generation of born again bikers who are set to retire in the coming years.

Commenting on one of the knock on effects of Japan's baby boom in the forties, Mr Kajikawa explained: "It cannot be denied or avoided: for the coming ten or twenty years the proportion of older people in Japan will increase. This is definitely an opportunity for us."