An outboard motor is provided that can include an exhaust guide, a shift shaft, a shift shaft rotating mechanism, and a shifting mechanism. The exhaust guide, on which an engine can be mounted, can be utilized to fix the relative positions of an axis of the shift shaft and a body of the shift shaft rotating mechanism for facilitating highly accurate and well-executed shifting of a propeller to or from one of forward and reverse rotating directions. The shift shaft can be rotatably supported by the exhaust guide, and the shift shaft rotating mechanism can be fixed to the exhaust guide. Further, the shift shaft rotating mechanism can be configured to selectively rotate the shift shaft.