Soichiro Honda
The founder of Honda, Soichiro Honda was a mechanical engineer with a passion for motorcycle and automobile racing.Honda started his company in 1946 by building motorized bicycles with small, war-surplus engines. Honda would grow tobecome the world's leading manufacturer of motorcycles and later one of the leading automakers. Following its founder'slead, Honda has always been a leader in technology, especially in the area of engine development.
Soichiro Honda was described as a maverick(特⽴独⾏的⼈) in a nation of conformists. He made it a point to wear loudsuits and wildly colored shirts. An inventor by nature who often joined the work on the floors of his factories and researchlaboratories, Honda developed engines that transformed the motorcycle into a worldwide means of transportation.
Born in 1906, Honda grew up in the town of Tenryu, Japan. The eldest son of a blacksmith who repaired bicycles, theyoung Soichiro had only an elementary school education when, in his teens, he left home to seek his fortune in Tokyo. Anauto repair company hired him in 1922, but for a year he was forced to serve as a baby-sitter for the auto shop's owner andhis wife. While employed at the auto shop, however, Honda built his own racing car using an old aircraft engine and
handmade parts and participated in racing. His racing career was short lived, however. He suffered serious injuries in a 1936crash.
By 1937, Honda had recovered from his injuries. He established his own company, manufacturing piston rings, but hefound that he lacked a basic knowledge of casting. To obtain it, he enrolled in a technical high school, applying theories ashe learned them in the classrooms to his own factory. But he did not bother to take examinations at the school. Informed thathe would not be graduated, Honda commented that a diploma was \"worth less than a movie theater ticket. A ticketguarantees that you can get into the theater. But a diploma doesn't guarantee that you can make a living.\"
Honda's burgeoning company mass produced metal propellers during WW Ⅱ, replacing wooden ones. Allied bombingand an earthquake destroyed most of his factory and he sold what was left to Toyota in 1945.
In 1946, he established the Honda Technical Research Institute to motorize bicycles with small, war-surplus engines.These bikes became very popular in Japan. The institute soon began making engines. Renamed Honda Motor in 1948, thecompany began manufacturing motorcycles. Business executive Takeo Fujisawa was hired to manage the company whileHonda focused on engineering.
In 1951, Honda brought out the Dream Type E motorcycle, which proved an immediate success thanks to Honda's
innovative overhead valve design, The smaller F-type cub (1952) accounted for 70% of Japan's motorcycle production by theend of that year. A public offering and support from Mitsubishi Bank allowed Honda to expand and begin exporting. Theversatile C100 Super Cub, released in 1958, became an international bestseller.
In 1959, the American Honda Motor was founded and soon began using the slogan, \"You meet the nicest people on aHonda,\" to offset the stereotype of motorcyclists during that period. Though the small bikes were dismissed by the dominantAmerican and British manufacturers of the time, the inexpensive imports brought new riders into motorcycling and changedthe industry forever in the United States.
Ever the racing enthusiast, Honda began entering his company's motorcycles in domestic Japanese races during the1950s. In the mid-1950s, Honda declared that his company would someday win world championship events--a declarationthat seemed unrealistic at the time.
In June 1959, the Honda racing team brought their first motorbike to compete in the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy race, thenthe world's most popular motorcycle race. This was the first entry by a Japanese team. With riders Naomi Taniguchi, whofinished sixth, Teisuke Tanaka, who finished eighth, and Kiyoshi Kawashima, who would later succeed Soichiro as HondaMotor president, as team manager, Honda won the manufacturer's prize.
However, they were not pleased with their performance. Kawashima remembers: \"We were clobbered. Our horsepowerwas less than half that of the winner.\"
Learning from this experience, Soichiro and his team worked even harder to make rapid progress in their motorsportsactivities. Two years after their first failure, they were the sensation at the TT by capturing the first five places in both the
125ce and 250cc classes. The upstart Japanese had outclassed all their rivals. As a result of the team's stellar performance,the Honda name became well known worldwide, and its export volume rose dramatically. Soichiro seemed to have foreseenthe future of Japan, which, twenty years later, was to become one of the world's leading economies.
Honda would become the most successful manufacturer in all of motorcycle racing. Honda has since won hundreds ofnational and world championships in all forms of motorcycle competition.
While Honda oversaw a worldwide company by the early-1970s (Honda entered the automobile market in 1967), henever shied away from getting his hands greasy. Sol Sanders, author of a Honda biography, said Honda appeared \"almostdaily\" at the research lab where development work was being done. Even as president of the company, \"he worked as one ofthe researchers,' Sanders quoted a Honda engineer as saying. \"Whenever we encountered a problem, he studied it alongwith us.\"
In 1973, Honda, at 67, retired on the 25th anniversary of Honda's founding. He declared his conviction that Honda
should remain a youthful company. \"Honda has always moved ahead of the times, and I attribute its success to the fact thatthe firm possesses dreams and youthfulness,\" Honda said at the time.
Unlike most chief executive officers in Japan, who step down to become chairmen of their firms, Honda retained onty thetitle of \"supreme adviser\". In retirement, Honda devoted himself to public service and frequent travel abroad. He received theOrder of the Sacred Treasure, first class, the highest honor bestowed by Japan's emperor. He also received the Americanauto industry's highest award when he was admitted to the Automotive Hall of Fame in 19. Honda was awarded the AMA'shighest honor, the Dud Perkins Award, in 1971.
Honda died on August 5, 1991 from liver failure at 84. His wife, Sachi, and three children survived him. 1. Soichiro Honda was a man who preferred to wear plain clothes.
2. When enrolled in a technical high school to obtain basic knowledge of casting, Soichiro Honda finally got the diplomaafter attending the examinations.
3. Like most chief executive officers in Japan, Soichiro Honda Stepped down to become chairmen of Honda after hisretirement.
4. Even as the president of a worldwide company, Soichiro Honda would work at the research lab with the employees. 5. Following its founder's lead, Honda has always been a leader in technology, especially in the area of ______. 6. After WW Ⅱ, Honda mounted ______ on bicycles and these motorized bicycles sold rapidly in Japan. 7. A public offering and support from ______ allowed Honda to expand his business and begin to invade theinternational market.
8. In 1959, the American Honda Motor used the slogan,\" ______\" to change the negative image of motorcyclists inAmerica.
9. In 1959 with their first motorbike Honda racing team participate in ______ race, which was the most popularmotorcycle race at that time.
10. According to Honda, ______ are, the major factors that led to the success of Honda company. 1. N 2. N 3. N 4. Y 5. engine development 6. small, war-surplus engines 7. Mitsubishi Bank
8. You meet the nicest people on a Honda. 9. the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy 10. dreams and youthfulness
