Soichiro Honda
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
In October 1946 he opened the Honda Technical Research Institute in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. He first considered a loom for weaving wide fabrics but lacked the funds, so he switched to buying up small engines the military had used for wartime communications equipment, fitting them to bicycles and selling them. In September 1948 he took over the institute and founded Honda Motor with capital of ¥1 million. In August 1949 he completed the two-stroke Dream Type D, moving from supplying engines to building complete vehicles. That same month Takeo Fujisawa joined, cementing a partnership that split engineering and management.
Selection
He was President of the company he founded himself and had no predecessor. He and Takeo Fujisawa also held the capital: as of August 1955, the largest shareholder was Soichiro Honda and the second Takeo Fujisawa. Even when the company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on December 2, 1957, Honda held 1,184 thousand shares and Fujisawa 703 thousand, more than Mitsubishi Bank's 400 thousand. Capital was built up from ¥6 million in June 1952 to ¥60 million in December 1953, and grew to ¥360 million at the listing.
Initiatives
Around 1951 he stayed out of meetings of manufacturers lobbying the government to block imports, and around 1953, when capital had grown to ¥60 million, he bought ¥400 million worth of machine tools from Switzerland, the United States and Germany. In March 1954 he declared that Honda would enter the Isle of Man TT race in Britain, and in 1961 it won both the 125cc and 250cc classes. In June 1963 Honda entered four-wheelers with a light truck and a small sports car, staying outside the framework of the Specified Industries Promotion bill, which aimed to consolidate passenger car makers. He met emissions regulations with CVCC, and in October 1973 retired at the same time as Takeo Fujisawa.
Career
Career
Honda R&D
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1946 | General Manager |
Honda Motor
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Sep 1948 | President |
| Oct 1973 | Stepped down as President |
| Aug 1981 | Director, Supreme Advisor |