Who Founded Honda?

Soichiro Honda founded the company in 1946. Originally a mechanic who manufactured piston rings for Toyota, he realized that post-war Japan desperately needed cheap, reliable transportation. He famously began by attaching surplus military generator engines to bicycles, eventually designing entirely new, highly efficient motorcycle engines that would conquer the global market.

Soichiro Honda was born in 1906 in Shizuoka.

Honda was born on November 17, 1906 and died on August 5, 1991. He oversaw the company's growth from a wooden shack making bicycle motors into a multinational maker of cars and motorcycles.

Takeo Fujisawa co-founded Honda in 1949, serving as the absolute perfect business counterpart to Soichiro Honda's engineering obsession. While Honda stayed in the factory designing engines, Fujisawa built the massive, highly aggressive dealer networks and orchestrated the legendary 'You meet the nicest people on a Honda' marketing campaign that completely changed the global perception of motorcycles.

Takeo Fujisawa was born in 1910.

Fujisawa was born on November 10, 1910 and died on December 30, 1988. He ran the financial side of the company while Soichiro Honda handled engineering and product development.