Research

Sophia Vargas

Mr. Skipper

Encounters 7

Date turned in Jan 12

Honda: The Power of Dreams

Introduction

Soichiro Honda was a very successful car manufacturer, and was famous for being the founder of Honda Motor Co. as well as creating one of the biggest car manufacturing companies in the world. Honda Motor Co. is known globally by over 140 countries around the world (Soichiro Honda Biography). Before his manufacturing car company skyrocketed, he assisted car racers and was the mechanic in case an injury occurred. Secondly, he started off poor and eventually grew to be more successful; he used to work in a small wooden shack making bicycles, and grew from there. In addition, this is what led to his opportunity of success to shine. He had grown his company from a small start and he had risen exponentially ever since then. Soichiro Honda was a hard worker and because of his dedication and his personality to never give up, he had made it to where he wanted to be in life. 

Early Life

Soichiro Honda was born the eldest son out of all his siblings, being born on November 17, 1906. He was born in a small village called Komyo Village now called Tenryu City, in Japan, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. His parents both had professions, his dad, Gihei Honda, being a blacksmith and the owner of a bicycle repair business, and his mother, Mika, being a weaver and designer. Gihei was always curious about machines and repair since he was a chile due to his own father influencing him, and the same thing happened with Soichiro and his father. (Joy of Manufacturing). Soichiro was never really interested in schooling and therefore was not doing too well in his studies. At the end of middle school, he saw an advertisement for a job called “Tokyo Art Shokai.”. He was up for the opportunity and so at the age of 16, he dropped out of school to have a job that could one day change his life. At Art Skokai, he worked with the company owners called the Sakakibara brothers and assisted them to fix cars during races in case something bad happened. This was the path to his career and what really set him off into the real world to be one step closer to his manufacturing journey (Joy of Manufacturing).

Beginning of Career

Soichiro met a lot of new people in his lifetime at this point. He learned from the Sakakibara brothers, his father, and grandfather. They had all taught him a lot about motors and vehicles (McFadden). Soon, he started his business by buying old and beat up bicycles, repairing them, then selling them for a higher price than he had originally bought for. He was then known for having the best bicycle business in the neighborhood (Joy of Manufacturing). He  had to learn from his father his black smithing skills in order to use it to create the bikes and his small business ended up becoming pretty successful. Mr. Honda had to overcome a lot of obstacles over the years such as taking the time to not give up. He stayed determined the whole time from the very beginning. It had been hard for him since he dropped out of school and decided to start a career at a very young age. He was also very poor so he had to do things on his own with not many people to guide him on how to start entrepreneuring, or teach him real world skills such as having a good education. Soichiro Honda never gave up on his dreams and this is what makes him special.

Significant Accomplishments

Honda went on to achieve his dream. Soon enough, through a lot of dedication and hard work, he was able to start working for a factory making piston rings and providing them for Toyota. Everything was going great for him until WWII struck and suddenly things went downhill, and he later sold his business for 450,000 yen. Soon after in 1946, he rose back up again and went ahead to make his own company called Honda Technology Research Institute where he would produce mopeds. “There was plenty of fire oil in the countryside of Japan in those times. Honda sold 1,500 of these mopeds, nicknamed ‘choo-choo’ for their sound” (Soichiro Honda Biography) Two years later, he changed his company name to Honda Motor Company. He made a profit off of selling his mopeds and started manufacturing motorcycles, and with those motorcycles, he started winning motorcycle races. He was flourishing with success and soon, even started manufacturing four-wheelers and had a thought of making miking cars, however the department that worked for him declined because of all the motor vehicles being made. Soichiro however, didn't care and knew that it would be best for him and his company. He designed the car and made prototypes. Turns out the department liked the idea and went ahead with it. He became the biggest and most successful motorbike manufacturer in the world. To this day his motorbikes still win bike races just like he wanted. Soichiro not only manufactured motorbikes, but he also went ahead to create vehicles made for water, space or aircraft, gardening equipment, and more (SeeKen). He never expected to reach as far as he'd thought. All the ups like creating his miking cars, and downs like WWII, happened for a reason and all of those events took place in his story and changed his life forever.

Impact on the World (positive or negative)

Soichiro Honda not only impacted America, but the whole world with his amazing creations. His creations benefited people from all around the globe, and spreaded a positive effect on people by transporting people from one place to another. The motor industry had a step up once Honda joined in and hasn't fallen down since then. “The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) would establish the Soichiro Honda Medal in recognition of his great achievements in engineering in 1982. This medal is awarded to recognize outstanding achievement or significant engineering contributions in the field of personal transportation Honda was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame near Detroit in 1989” (McFadden).  Honda was outgrowing other companies by a lot. Nissan and Toyota company car sales dropped by 40%, while Honda Motor Company car sales were off the charts with the sales going up by 76%. As he got older, he made a store of his achievements. He made 470 inventions, 150 patents, he was honored at Michigan Technical University and Ohio State University, highest honor of Japan and got the Blue Ribbon, and not only did he start his business from 3,200 dollars, but his business has an annual revenue of over 30 billion dollars (Soichiro Honda Biography. So as you can see, he changed, inspired, and made the world a better place with his hard work.

Works Cited 

“The ‘Joy of Manufacturing’ / 1936.” Honda: The Power of Dreams, global.honda/heritage/episodes/1936joyofmanufacturing.html. Accessed 22 Nov. 2021.

McFadden, Christopher. “Soichiro Honda: The Founder of Honda and The Legend.” Interesting Engineering, 3 Feb. 2018, interestingengineering.com/soichiro-honda-the-founder-of-honda-and-the-legend. Accessed 22 Nov. 2021.

SeeKen. “Soichiro Honda’s inspiring Story - Founder of Honda Motors.’’ SeeKen, 4 Nov. 2017, seeken.org/soichiro-honda-founder-honda-motors/.  Accessed 22 Nov. 2021.

“Soichiro Honda Biography: A Great History of Japanese Car Manufacturer.” Austrum People, astrumpeople.com/soichiro-honda-biography-

a-great-history-of-japanese-car-manufacturer/ Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.