Soichiro Honda

I love that Honda started as a grease-stained kid in a Shizuoka repair shop and basically refused to let school certificates tell him what he could build. There's something gloriously stubborn about a guy whose whole motto was "don't imitate" and who, when his team wanted to play it safe, instead declared they'd go win the Isle of Man TT and then actually pulled it off. He famously hurled wrenches when he was furious, yet handed the entire business to Takeo Fujisawa so he could stay where his heart was: on the floor, obsessing over engines. To me that's the dream version of a maker, someone who treats a Super Cub and a clean-emissions engine with equal reverence. He's loud, human, impatient, and weirdly inspiring. Most "visionaries" bore me; this one I'd actually want to grab a beer with.

Soichiro Honda (November 17, 1906 – August 5, 1991) was a Japanese entrepreneur and engineer born in Mitsuo Village, Iwata District, Shizuoka Prefecture (present-day Tenryu Ward, Hamamatsu). After apprenticing at a Tokyo auto-repair shop, he struck out independently in 1928 and founded Honda Motor Co., Ltd. in 1948, serving as its president until 1973. Under his technical leadership, Honda swept positions 1 through 5 in the 125 cc and 250 cc classes at the Isle of Man TT in 1961 and introduced the CVCC engine in 1972 — the world's first to comply with the stringent U.S. Muskie Act emissions standards — cementing the company's reputation as a global technology leader.

Name (English)

Soichiro Honda

Name (Japanese)

本田宗一郎

Reading

ほんだ そういちろう

Born

November 17, 1906 – August 5, 1991

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Horse (午)

Origin

Mitsuo Village, Iwata District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (present-day Tenryu Ward, Hamamatsu)

Agency history

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. — Representative Director and President (1948–1973)
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. — Director and Supreme Advisor (c. 1973–1983)

Active years

1928–1991

Occupation

Entrepreneur / Engineer / Automobile and Motorcycle Developer

Elementary school

Futamata Town Futamata Ordinary Higher Elementary School (present-day Hamamatsu City Futamata Elementary School) — graduated

High school

Did not advance to high school

University

Hamamatsu Higher Technical School (present-day Faculty of Engineering, Shizuoka University) — auditor (not a formal enrolled student)

Debut

1928 — opened the Hamamatsu branch of Tokyo Art Shokai independently, engaging in automobile repair

Awards & achievements

• 1952 — Blue Ribbon Medal (Japan)
• 1980 — Holley Medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• 1981 — Order of the Sacred Treasure, First Class (Japan)
• 1987 — UNEP Global 500 Award
• 1989 — Inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame (USA) — first Asian inductee
• 1990 — FIA Gold Medal
• 1991 — Junior First Rank and Order of the Rising Sun, Paulownia Flowers with Grand Cordon (posthumous)
• 1994 — Japan Automotive Hall of Fame inductee

Timeline

1. 1906Born on November 17 in Mitsuo Village, Iwata District, Shizuoka Prefecture (present-day Tenryu Ward, Hamamatsu)
2. 1922Moved to Tokyo and entered apprenticeship at Tokyo Art Shokai, an automobile repair shop in Yushima
3. 1928Opened the Hamamatsu branch of Tokyo Art Shokai independently
4. 1934Founded Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry (later Tokai Seiki)
5. 1935Married Sachi Isobe
6. 1948Founded Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and became its representative director
7. 1954Declared Honda's entry into the Isle of Man TT Race, driving technical advancement
8. 1961Honda swept positions 1–5 in both the 125 cc and 250 cc classes at the Isle of Man TT
9. 1972Announced the CVCC engine — the world's first to meet the strict U.S. Muskie Act emissions standards
10. 1973Retired as president at age 67; became director and supreme advisor
11. 1989Inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame (USA) — first Asian to receive the honor
12. 1991Died on August 5 at age 84 from liver failure

Spouse

Sachi Isobe (married 1935)

Children

3 children: eldest son Hirotoshi, second son Katsuhisa, eldest daughter Keiko

Hobbies

• Interest in aviation and aircraft
• Appreciation of painting

Specialties

• Engine design and development
• Metalworking

Motto

"Do not imitate others." / "Nothing is born from a person without dreams."

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%AC%E7%94%B0%E5%AE%97%E4%B8%80%E9%83%8E

Tags

• Entrepreneur
• Honda Founder
• From Shizuoka Prefecture
• Automobile
• Motorcycle
• Engineer
• Showa Era Business Leader

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.