Why today? Because today marks thirty years since the passing of the man who changed the future of technology with his mad, rebellious passion, vision, and adamant refusal to conform to standards, a passion that later became what we know today as Honda. Ladies and gentlemen, Soichiro Honda (本田 宗一郎).
An innovator and a rebel committed to his cause, Soichiro is of humble origins –born in a village in the Hamamatsu region of Shizuoka, Japan, on an autumn day, on 17 November 1906, to hard-working and tenacious parents. His father, Gihei – a blacksmith by trade – is the one who instilled in Soichiro his initial passion for machinery. From his mother, Myka, he inherits tenacity, determination, and an exaggerated curiosity; the traits shared by both strengthen his character in the years to come.
Soichiro was a stubborn man, a misfit within society’s conventions, a visionary and a dreamer, stubbornly refusing to conform to society’s current norms because he did not see their point or purpose. He – in his righteous cause – was not helped by them, and even more so by their putting obstacles in his way; perhaps that is why he is even today remembered as a rebel. But despite all these aspects that would easily pass as flaws in the eyes of many, the proof of Honda’s success today reflects the truth behind the passion.
He refused to accept conventional schooling, which is not surprising given all I mentioned above about his personality. He left school after only eight years of study, at age 15, despite his parents’ efforts to convince him to continue on this path.
Already with some experience from his teenage years spent in his father’s bicycle workshop, Soichiro sets off for the great metropolis of Tokyo, enlisting as an apprentice at a reputable auto mechanic shop – Tokyo Art Shokai.
The workshop was among the most famous in Tokyo, and that apprentice position was among the most coveted at the time. Soichiro excelled, and what’s more, the owner of the workshop – Yuzo Sakakibara – noticed him quite quickly; no wonder, since Soichiro showed not only devotion to his craft and hard work but also enthusiasm, passion, and the ability to improvise when the situation demanded it, without a strong interest in the financial side, as an ordinary man might. And Yuzo knew how to appreciate value and talent when he discovered it.
By taking him under his wing, he gently showed him how important a problem’s technical aspects were and the inseparable quality of appreciating and valuing your own creation – both for its good parts and accepting failure when it occurs. Yuzo guided him in all aspects of his development as a mechanic, leaving a deep imprint on Soichiro’s soul – he has repeatedly admitted that the man who underpinned his knowledge and inspired him to improve throughout his career was his own boss, Yuzo Sakakibara, and the man he respected most to the last moment of his life.
Soichiro worked hard, on fire, to broaden his knowledge of machines, mechanics, and principles. From the late stories of those who had the opportunity to work with him, we learn that he never stopped at just one area of this vast field of mechanics – in other words, he was the man who was good at everything – really good at everything, sometimes even talking about things that were seemingly impossible for a man or that remained at the level of lines in the handbooks of the great engineers.
The same Yuzo encouraged Soichiro’s interest in motorsport. In 1923, he began working on racing cars under the guidance of his mentor and his younger brother, Shin’ichi. Together, they built a prototype using a Daimler engine, followed shortly thereafter by the Curtiss, a model still on display at the Honda museum today. The Curtiss combines an American Curtiss “Jenny” A1 aircraft engine with the chassis of a Mitchell model. The car participated in the Fifth Japan Automobile Competition on 23 November 1924, piloted by Yuzo’s brother, and won a place among the leaders.
Shortly afterward, in April 1928, Soichiro was named head of a small workshop in Hamamatsu province by his boss, an opportunity he seized, trying to bring small ideas for improving products and vehicles to life. One proposal was to replace the spokes of bicycle wheels with metal ones, for which he received a patent, but it did not bring much profit to the small workshop, which had since become his personal property. Soichiro then changed course and started manufacturing engine piston rings – a project in which he invested all his money but was ridiculed by the workshop’s bosses. Not wanting to be ruined, Honda continued manufacturing these piston rings, even though for a long time this activity, or “hobby” as his colleagues called it, left him more broke than with money in his pocket.
But why did he fail? Because Soichiro’s attitude, rather arrogant on the technical side, was holding him back. He had a problem with mixing metals and didn’t listen to those who were more knowledgeable, stubbornly sticking to his own recipe. The change came when Soichiro shifted his way of looking at and approaching his surroundings and accepted the importance of studying, enrolling as a student at Hamamatsu Technical School – thus finishing high school.
He succumbed to learning when given the secret of the mixture needed for his piston rings – silicone. Soichiro thus became a full-time student at the rather advanced age of 28. An interesting fact about that period is that Soichiro was the only person at the university who drove a car he personally owned – a Buick – at a time when even professors could not afford a personal vehicle.
Soichiro married his girlfriend Sachi in October 1933, at 28. Sachi, an educated woman, was also his only love and remained close to him until her last day. She was also his right-hand or test driver when Honda Motors took off a few years later.
Soichiro opened his mind and vision to expand on foreign learning, which set him on the right track, and he soon became a successful builder of racing engines. Their special feature was that none of them exploded, thanks to the engine-cooling method he invented, which was completely new in the racing world. But don’t be scared. Honda didn’t finish his studies either, vehemently refusing to take his graduation exams. His answer was quite dry, simple but convincing: “I need knowledge, not a diploma.”
Soichiro is taking advantage of the upward momentum and increasingly getting involved in this motorsport phenomenon so he can experience the engine’s impact on the driver firsthand and identify what needs improvement. But in 1936, a severe accident ended Soichiro’s driving career, leaving him in the hospital for three months with multiple fractures.
Soichiro’s first truly workable and considered product was completed on 20 November 1937. At that point, Soichiro plucked up the courage, and the first factory – Tokai Seiki – opened its doors in 1938, a year later. In 1941, the factory received large orders from Toyota, and more followed during the Second World War, but the success was short-lived. In 1945, the city of Hamamatsu was bombed, and Soichiro decided to sell his small factory to the Toyota concern for 450,000 yen.
Now comes the interesting part. Tired of all the fuss, Soichiro decided to take a well-deserved break, spending about 10,000 yen on a barrel of booze, from which he and his friends toasted themselves for a year.
The name “Honda” first appeared on a plaque on the wall of a building in 1946, when Soichiro established the Honda Technology Research Institute, where he built… mopeds. It should not be forgotten that Honda is a pioneer in motorcycles today, as the concept of mounting an engine on a bike was not as widespread at the time as we might have thought. Europeans had been toying with the idea since the First World War, but Japan had only tested a few imported bikes from overseas.
The first model to feature Soichiro’s signature was special – the engine was built from an old wartime radio generator, adapted and converted by Soichiro to power the bike’s frame. Honda sold 1,500 of the first model. In 1947, Honda replaced this adapted engine with a 50cc two-stroke engine, Soichiro Honda’s own creation. In September 1948, the Institute changed its name to Honda Motor Company. Honda experienced rapid growth thanks to these motorcycles. In ’51, the first four-stroke model was launched, and in 1958 the Honda name was recognized as the largest Japanese motorcycle manufacturer in the world.
Fame and notoriety are spreading, and Soichiro has to rethink his company’s management strategy – this part he does well. Honda has been recognized as revolutionary not only for the technical side of his company but also for the broad, open vision of his staff. Known for selecting employees with great care, Soichiro has always believed that good work will be done by people who are not bullied or pushed around, so he gave the research department total freedom, without constraints. At the same time, he created a system of evaluation and promotion based on each employee’s personal criteria for performance within the company – in a way, Honda created a system designed to create geniuses so that anyone could replace him as president of the company when needed.
However, he has not forgotten his first love, cars. In 1962, Soichiro took up his dream again and began building cars once more. Despite the pressure Japan’s bigwigs put on him, attacking him with all sorts of arguments about how their country didn’t need another car manufacturer, Soichiro didn’t listen – the wolf is known to change his coat, but not his face. So Honda followed its instincts and did well – three years later, it would lead the podium in this segment too.
Soichiro put his mind to it and approached the problem from a different angle than a car manufacturer usually does, focusing on emissions. No manufacturer had taken the problem seriously. Honda thus built the first catalytic converter and the first low-pollution engine, both of which were prepared for the company’s star car – the Honda Civic (SB1), which was to be launched in 1975 and enjoyed huge success.
Moreover, the 1970s were a success for Honda, as Soichiro decided to open the first factory on American soil in Ohio. The best-selling model on the US market was the very first model produced – the Accord, which soon became the leader in its market segment in the 1980s. The Accord is also why Soichiro Honda’s name is still inscribed in today’s American car industry’s Hall of Fame.
Soichiro has admitted, in various interviews, that the key to his success was simply that every time he tried, he either failed or succeeded. If he failed, it was not the end. He would pick himself up, as he did on numerous occasions, and start over. He never feared failure, embracing it and preparing for the next victory with the same mad smile on his face. He never accepted defeat. He fought hard for his ideas, even when everything around him howled that it was impossible and he’d better give up.
Another particular detail of Honda’s was, as I related a little above, his different way of hiring people in the company. Not infrequently, he turned down individuals with impeccable credentials simply because they had graduated from far too many schools; his main fear was that their thinking – too dogmatic and framed by societal standards – would affect the smooth running of his company and would not coincide with his open-minded product vision.
Soichiro didn’t. need people out of the box and off the school benches. He needed visionaries, or at least those as crazy as he was during his years of apprenticeship. He vehemently refused to involve his relatives in his business, rejecting the idea of his chairman’s seat being taken by one of his children –
“It doesn’t matter how good and brilliant the founder of the company was; there is no guarantee that his son is capable of the same greatness. The company’s management must be taken over by someone with qualities in their blood”.
Soichiro Honda spent 65 years with the company, testing every new model that came to market. He died suddenly in 1991 at age 85 from liver failure. No one knew he was ill, as Soichiro remained in the shadows at the company’s helm for a long time, serving as vice president.
He left behind a company worth over $30 million, a name, a brand, a legend, 470 inventions and 150 patents, doctorates from American universities, Japan’s highest award, the Blue Ribbon, etc.
Even today, Soichiro proves that it’s not the schools you attend or the social environment that lifts you in your daydreams. What matters is what you really want, whether you understand your purpose in life, listen to the inner voice that sometimes sounds crazy, and fight for your dreams. And fighting without misses, fences, and obstacles is impossible.
Thank you, Soichiro. You will always remain a cornerstone in the hearts of many Honda lovers and others.
