• News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
  • News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
Sign up Now (For Free)

Sign up for our newsletter and receive the latest automotive news in your inbox!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thanks for subscribing!
News
Read Now
  • All News
  • Automakers
  • Automobiles
  • Auto Shows
  • Business
  • EVs & Environment
  • Guides
  • Lawsuits/Legal
  • Regulatory
  • Ride-Sharing
  • Safety & Recalls
  • Technology
Recent
  • Ford Announces Massive Solar Power Program – Michigan Factories to Use 100% Green Energy
  • Lucid Turns to The Dark Side
  • Ford Hikes F-150 Lightning Prices as Much as $7,000
  • 2023 Honda Pilot TrailSport Does a Where’s Waldo Impression
  • EVs, Executives and More on the Latest Headlight News Podcast
  • Tesla Accused of False Advertising by California DMV
  • FTC Proposes Crackdown on Shady Auto Dealer Practices
  • Tesla Overtakes Mercedes-Benz in Europe
  • Two Years Late, Tesla Cybertruck Will Now Cost More
  • U.S. Senate’s Inflation Reduction Act Reinstates EV Tax Credits — With Limits
Editor’s Choice
    Reviews
    Read Now
    • All Reviews
    • Classic Cars
    • Concept Cars
    • Convertibles
    • Coupes
    • Crossovers/CUVs
    • Diesel
    • Hot hatches
    • Hybrids
    • Luxury Vehicles
    • Minivans
    • Muscle Cars
    • Pickups
    • Sedans
    • Sports Cars
    • Super Cars
    • SUVs
    Recent Reviews
    • A Week With: 2022 Toyota RAV4 Prime XSE AWD
    • A Week With: 2023 Kia Sportage Hybrid EX AWD
    • A Week With: 2022 Volkswagen Golf GTI 2.0 Autobahn
    • A Week With: 2022 Infiniti QX60 Luxe AWD
    • First Drive: 2023 Genesis G90
    • A Week With: 2022 BMW M4 Competition xDrive Convertible
    • A Week With: 2022 Jaguar F-Pace R Dynamic S
    • A Week With: Genesis GV70 3.5T AWD Sport Prestige
    • First Drive: 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQB
    • We Drive the Record-Setting Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX
    Editor’s Choice
      Guides
      Car Warranty
      • Endurance Warranty Reviews
      • BMW Extended Warranty
      • Extended Warranty For Cars Over 100k Miles
      • Extended Car Warranty Cost
      • Subaru Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Reviews
      • CarShield Cost
      • Aftermarket Car Warranty
      • CARCHEX Warranty Reviews
      • Reputable Extended Car Warranty Companies
      • Used Car Warranty Companies
      • Best Car Warranty
      • Is CarShield A Scam?
      • Mercedes Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Plans
      Insurance
      • How To Identify A Car Insurance Company
      • Geico Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • How Far Back Does A Car Insurance Company Look
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance For Used Cars
      • State Farm Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance From Progressive
      • Dollar A Day Insurance
      • Auto Insurance For SSI Recipients
      • Car Insurance Rates After A Suspended License
      • Auto Insurance For Salvage Vehicles
      • Average Cost of Dodge Ram 1500 Car Insurance
      • Car Insurance Florida
      • Full Coverage Auto Insurance
      • GrubHub Insurance
      • Amazon Delivery Auto Insurance
      Shipping
      • Car Shipping Companies
      • uShip Reviews
      • Auto Shipping From California To Hawaii
      • Montway Auto Transport Reviews
      • Cheap Car Shipping
      • Easy Auto Ship Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Miami
      • Auto Shipping To Alaska
      • Car Shipping Cost
      • Auto Shipping Hawaii
      • Auto Shipping Puerto Rico
      • Sherpa Auto Transport Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Atlanta
      • Auto Shipping Boston
      • Auto Shipping. Chicago
      About
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • Affiliate Disclosure
      • Sitemap
      TheDetroitBureau.com

      More than just “another” place to find news, reviews, spy shots, commentary, features, and guides about the auto industry. TheDetroitBureau doesn’t stop with the press releases or confuse a few lines of opinion with insightful, in-depth reporting.

      Contact Us

      Like what you see? Have some ideas for making The Detroit Bureau.com even better? Let us know, we’d love to hear your voice.

        Media
        Listen Now
        • Headlight News: All Episodes
        More from TheDetroitBureau
        • Guides
        • Latest News
        • Auto Reviews
        • Podcasts
        Headlight News

        TheDetroitBureau.com’s Headlight News offers a look at the past week’s top automotive news stories, as well as what’s coming up in the week ahead. Check out the week’s top story and our latest review…along with a dive into the past with this week in automotive history.

        home > news > Automakers > The Rearview Mirror: The Death of a Japanese Rebel

        The Rearview Mirror: The Death of a Japanese Rebel

        Soichiro Honda defied the Japanese Government to establish one of Japan’s most successful automakers.

        Larry Printz
        Larry Printz , Executive Editor
        Aug. 06, 2022

        This week in 1991, Soichiro Honda, a rebellious auto mechanic who defied the Japanese Government and established Honda Motor Co., dies at the age of 84. His company found its greatest success in America, wooing a generation of young drivers who Detroit never got back. But his company’s rise was anything but likely.

        young Soichiro Honda vert REL
        Soichiro Honda started as a auto mechanic and evolved into auto industry leader. (All photos courtesy of Honda)

        Honda’s beginnings

        Born Nov. 17, 1906, in the Shizuoka Prefecture, Soichiro Honda’s father, Gihei Honda, was a blacksmith, his mother, Mika, a weaver. Soichiro developed an interest in machinery, becoming an apprentice at motorcycle manufacturer Art Shokai in Tokyo, serving as a riding mechanic. In 1923, the company began making race cars, including one fabricated from an American Mitchell automobile chassis and a Curtiss Biplane engine. It went on to win a fifth Japan Motor Car Championship in 1924. 

        His apprenticeship ends four years later, Honda continues repairing cars and occasionally races, something he’d continue through 1936, just after marrying. His driving career ends after being thrown from a car in accident at the All-Japan Speed Rally. It’s the opening race at the Tamagawa Speedway, Japan’s first racetrack, and the incident comes after Honda sets a speed record of 120 kph (74.6 mph). According to Honda, “when my wife cried and begged me to stop, I had to give it up.” But his new wife, Sachi, told a different story. “Did he stop because of something I said? I think it was a lecture from his father that made up his mind.”

        By this point, he shifts gears to become a manufacturer, forming Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry. He lands a contract to manufacture piston rings for Toyota Motor Co. Ltd in 1939 and Nakajima Aircraft. With Japan’s entry into World War II in 1941, Tokai Seiki is placed under the control of the Ministry of Munitions. The next year, Toyota acquires 40% of the company and Honda is demoted from president to senior managing director. The company manufactures aircraft engines for the Japanese navy. In 1945, he sells the company to Toyota.

        Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa REL
        In 1948, Honda, left, and his business partner, Takeo Fujisawa, establish the Honda Motor Co. to manufacture motorcycles.

        The birth of Honda Motor Co.

        In 1948, Honda and his business partner, Takeo Fujisawa, establish the Honda Motor Co. to manufacture motorcycles. Honda oversees creation and manufacturing of bikes, while Fujisawa handles finances and marketing. Honda’s first motorized bicycle, the Type A, arrives that same year, powered by Honda’s first mass-produced engine, a two-stroke unit. It was sold until 1951. Honda’s first true motorcycle, the Type D, debuts in 1949 with a pressed-steel frame and a two-stroke, 96cc, 3-horsepower engine. It’s the first Honda Dream motorcycle.

        By the mid-1950s, mopeds and light motorbikes were quickly replacing motorized bicycles in popularity. A replacement for Honda’s two-stroke motorized bikes was needed. A four-stroke engine was pushed for by Fujisawa because of its greater reliability, quieter operation, and fewer maintenance requirements. Since these vehicles were widely used for delivery in Japan, it was also essential that the bike be able to be ridden with just one hand so that the other could hold a tray of soba noodles. 

        The Super Cub was ready by 1958. Two years later, Honda was selling 30,000 a month form a newly built factory. The company was now the leading manufacturer of motorcycles in the world.

        An American foothold

        Honda Motor Co. motorcycles founded 1948 REL
        The Honda Motor Co. opened in 1948 with 34 employees and built motorcycles.

        By then, Honda had already established its first foreign outpost, American Honda, in 1959. But certainly, Honda faced an uphill battle in a market dominated by large, powerful bikes. 

        The Super Cub, renamed the 50 to avoid trademark conflicts with Piper Super Cub aircraft, would become famous after its famous ad campaign showing clean-cut Americans riding them accompanied by the tagline, “You Meet The Nicest People On A Honda.” By 1963, Honda was selling 84,000 units in the U.S. annually. 

        The following year, it’s the subject of a hit single by The Hondells, reaching number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, and covered the same year by The Beach Boys.

        Honda’s success was partially due to his management philosophy, dubbed “The Honda Way,” which demands respect for the Individual and encourages The Three Joys: The Joy of Buying, The Joy of Selling and The Joy of Creating.

        Going from two wheels to four

        first Honda motorcycle Marysville 1979 REL
        Honda expanded to the U.S., opening its first motorcycle plant in Marysville, Ohio in 1979.

        But Honda began investigating building cars, much to the chagrin of Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry, a government agency that ran Japan’s industrial policy. It saw Honda as a motorcycle manufacturer, not a carmaker. But Honda ignores MITI, beginning manufacture of the Kei-class T360 mini-truck, followed by the S500 sports car in 1963. The following year, the company fields Japan’s first Formula 1 racecar, the RA271, at the German Grand Prix. It wins its first Formula 1 victory in 1965 in Mexico.

        “Without racing, the automobile would not get batter,” Honda said. “Head-to-head competition in front of a crowd is the way to become number one in the world.”

        Honda, ever the rebel, continued to defy MITI, begging exports of the N600 in 1969 as a 1970 model. Weighing a mere 1,200 pounds, and possessing 46 horsepower air-cooled 2-cylinder engine, it featured front-wheel drive, rack and pinion steering, and front disc brakes. It would be replaced by the more conventional Honda Civic, a three-door hatchback weighing a little more than 1,500 pounds. The front-wheel-drive Civic was powered by a 50-hp 1.2-liter 4-cylinder engine mated to a 4-speed manual or 2-speed automatic transmission. 

        Its quality and fuel economy would lure a generation of Americans to reject Detroit iron, helping Honda become among the nation’s most popular automakers. Its smartness would as well, as its patented Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion engine, or CVCC, was clean enough to meet the requirements of the U.S. Clean Air Act for new cars in 1975 without a catalytic converter.

        first Honda Accord Marysville 1982 REL
        Honda brought car production to Marysville, here with the first Accord, in 1982.

        Strengthening its American ties

        Soichiro Honda was always a insurgent, and would build the first foreign motorcycle factory in Marysville, Ohio in 1979. Car production followed in 1982, a first for any Japanese automaker. The company then created Acura, Japan’s first luxury car brand, in 1986, debuting the Legend and Integra, two cars still revered by the Honda faithful.

        By 1990, the Honda Accord became the bestselling car in America, a first for a Japanese car, and the first time that accolade didn’t go to a Ford or Chevrolet.

        The following year, Soichiro Honda dies, a rebel who proved MITI wrong, and also won the hearts of millions of American motorists — on two wheels and four.

        “Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure,” he said.

        How to Care for Your Car

        Cheap Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice

        Best Extended Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice
        Recently Published
        Ford - DTE Solar

        Ford Announces Massive Solar Power Program – Michigan Factories to Use 100% Green Energy

        Today

        Lucid Turns to The Dark Side

        Yesterday

        Ford Hikes F-150 Lightning Prices as Much as $7,000

        Yesterday

        Leave a Reply Cancel reply

        Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

        Share this article:
        © The Detroit Bureau 2022
        • Guides
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms of Use
        • Affiliate Disclosure
        • Contact Us
        • Sitemap
        Follow Us: