The YS-11 is always best known for its commercial and military use in its native Japan. Although a design with some potential, as many other commercial airline projects, it was tailored to much to suit the domestic carriers in its homeland. Decades of passenger and cargo hauling have underlined the type's reputation as a solid, hardworking airliner. To this date it is the only Japanese airliner ever produced.

The programme to develop a short-to-medium range civil airliner was launched in Japan in 1956 by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which encouraged the local aerospace companies to combine their resources to tackle what would be their most challenging project since World War II. Initial project design activity was shared by six companies, comprising Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Fuji, Shin Meiwa, Japan Aircraft Manufacturing and Showa, and these six later became participants in the Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (NAMC), in which the Japanese government held the majority shareholding. Manufacturing activities related to the new transport were in due course shared by the six companies in proportion to their shareholding in NAMC.

The requirements of the Japanese domestic airline industry played a large part in defining the specification to which the new transport was to be built, and this led NAMC to make the aircraft somewhat larger than the turboprop twins already on the market, such asthe Fokker F-27 and HS.748. Basic passenger accommodation was set at 60. Some early studies consdered a high-wing layout similar to that of the F-27, but the more popular low-wing arrangement was eventually chosen, and an evaluation of the Allison 501, Napier Eland and Rolls-Royce Dart left the last-mentioned as the favoured power plant, in a version developed specially for the Japanese aircraft as the RDa.10/1, driving four-bladed 4.45m (14ft 6in) diameter Rotol propellers. Fuel, contained in integral 'wet wing' tanks, and bladders in the wing root area, totalled 7273 litres (1600 Imp gal).

The transport was designated YS-11 and work on four prototypes (two flying and two structural test aircraft) began following the creation of NAMC in May 1957. The two prototypes flew on 30 August and 28 December 1962 respectively and after more than 1,000hr of flight testing the YS-11 received Japanese certification on 25 August 1964 followed by FAA Type Approval on 7 September 1965. The first production YS-11 had flown, meanwhile, on 23 October 1964 and this wa delivered to the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau in March 1965. Airline use of the YS-11 followed a month later, with the delivery of an example to Toa Airways of Hiroshima, followed by Japan Domestic in May and All Nippon in July.

Production of the initial YS-11 version totalled 48 including prototypes, most of which were sold to Japanese carriers, plus six to the Japanese Self-Defence Forces. Four of the military aircraft were configures as 32/48-seat VIP transports and two as all-cargo aircraft.

Reflecting the aircraft's principal design philosophy to meet domestic needs, export sales of the YS-11 were sluggish, only Filipinas Orient Airlines (two, later increased to four), Hawaiian Airlines (three leased) and LANSA of Peru (three) taking delivery of the aircraft. Hoped-for sales in the United States did not materialise initially, and The Charlotte Aircraft Corporation, which had sole responsibility for marketing the YS-11 in the USA, suggested improvements to the design to make it more attractive to the US carriers.

These bore fruit in 1966 when NAMC announced development of the improved YS-11A in three variants, all featuring water-methanol injected 'hot-and-high' Rolls Royce Dart Mk 542 turboprops rated at 2,279kW (3,060 shp) and increased maximum take-off weights. The YS-11A-200 proved to be the most successful variant of the range, with a 60 seat, five-abreast cabin and a 1,270kg (2,800lb) increase in payload to 6,949kg (15,320lb). It first flew on 27 November 1967, was approved by the Japanese authorities in January 1968 and by the FAA on 3 April, and entered service that summer with the US carrier Piedmont Airlines, which ultimately had a fleet of 22 aircraft. The Brazilian airline Cruzeiro do Sul was another export customer, ordering 12. The YS-11A made its European public debut at the 1968 Farnborough air show in England at the start of an extensive demonstration tour of the region.