The story
In 1994 Yamaha announced the creation of Star Motorcycles, a new standalone brand name for its cruiser series of motorcycles in the American market. Although a separate brand, Star motorcycles would continue to be sold at Yamaha dealerships. In other markets the same bikes would still be sold as Yamahas. In 2006 the brand was expanded to being its own company, although Yamaha still handled production and distribution. The brand was operated out of the Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA offices in Cypress, California. The motorcycles were designed in the United States.
In 2016 Yamaha announced they would be dropping the moniker Star and reverted to selling under the Yamaha name.
From Wikipedia’s article on Star Motorcycles, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4