Harley-Davidson was a leader in tapping new markets. So also in Japan, this to the years '20 -'30 when Japan went very large taxes on imported motorcycles and cars. So Harley and compagnion started to search in Japan to build their Harley's there. This was the company Sankio that starts in 1933 under the name Riku O what means "king of the road" a famous slogan of Harley. Eerts they built exact models VL from imported parts. Later they became increasingly larger. This to 1937. From 1938 the model 91 was built that was also available with sidecar drive. In 1937 the contact with the USA was so bad that all cooperation was stopped. In 1945 this story ended with the atomic bomb on Hirochima which destroyed the entire factory.