ZX12R was the flagship sports bike of Kawasaki Motorcycles, before the introduction of the ZX-14 (ZZR1400). With the Kawasaki ZX12R Ninja, Kawasaki threw its gauntlet into the high-performance sportbike war raging among the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers. In 2001, all Japanese bike manufacturers reached an agreement regarding top speed of their bikes, which was set to 300 km/h.