FX.co ★ Soichiro Honda: legend's creation history

The future businessman was born in 1906 in the blacksmith's family in the small Japanese village near Hamamatsu. According to Honda, the decisive event of his childhood was the day when he saw a car that passed through the village.

Soichiro liked making toys. When he was hekping his father to fix something, he prefered to experiment instead of learning the algorithm by rote. Being a young man, Honda had read in a magazine ad that the company Art Shokai needed a mechanic assistant and persuaded his family to allow him to try his hand, and after graduation he went to Tokyo to this company's chop shop.

The lack of experience did not permit the young Japanese to work in the company as a staff member, so Honda was entrusted to look after the younger son of the owner.

Once, during a heavy snowfall, the staff could not cope with the volume of work and called Soichiro for help. It was then the head of the Art Shokai Yuzo Sakakibara was able to see how talented the young mechanic is. After that Honda only worked in the chop shop.

After working six year in the company and getting the invaluable experience, Honda quit, came back to Hamamatsu, and opened there a small car repair shop - a branch of Art Shokai. Thanks to the professional skills and huge customer base there always was a lot of work.

Being a mechanic in the heart, Honda always liked trying something different and introducing new standards, if they really worked. For example, instead of wooden wheel spokes he decided to test the iron ones, and, of course, has patented them.

In 1936, while participating in the races, Honda gets into an accident and was in hospital for three months, where he had a new idea - to create a separate company that produces the piston rings. Despite the refusal of investors, Soichiro did not give up.

Already in 1937 the mechanic-enthusiast Soichiro founds the company Tokai Seiki Heavy Industries, and after 3 years he heads it.

Honda attends lectures to learn how to work with casting. A year later, he freely uses in practice the new knowledge and improves the quality of the piston rings, which were patented in 1938. Thanks to this success Toyota became the customer of Tokai.

In the difficult post-war period, the company was sold for 450 thousand yen. Soon, Honda brought to life one of the most important of his inventions - a motorcycle. This event inspired him to create a new business.

A kind of bike with a little engine was presented by the entrepreneur to his wife. But soon, this vehicle became interesting to many people, and in 1946 Honda founded Honda Technical Research Institute. The working staff consists of 12 people, who worked in a dilapidated building of the former military plant. To raise funds for the establishment of the company Honda asked the bike shops owners to help him revive Japan.

Soichiro Honda always said to the employees about the huge potential of the company and the greatness of their overall mission. He promised that the company will become famous all over the world. His words proved prophetic, but in the beginning they were a simple motivation. In 1948, Honda Technical Research Institute changed its name to Honda Motor Company.

In 1949, the investor Takeo Fujisawa came to the company as a manager and helped to promote the product on the market. The company has undergone both economic and industrial ups and downs, but always kept its reputation at a high level.

And even after the death of Soichiro Honda the company continues its successful development, adhering to the wills of its founder and producing modern, high-quality and innovative models of cars, motorcycles, robots, engines and aircrafts.