Building a Legacy

As the years passed, the new shop grew bigger and bigger, employing more people. This was also the time when Honda got into racing. He participated in the First Japan Automobile Race in 1936. Unfortunately, he had a terrible accident where his brother, Benjiro Honda, who was also the co-driver, was seriously injured. One year later, Honda ended his racing career.

Soon after the incident Soichiro got into manufacturing. Despite opposition from his investors, Soichiro established Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry with the help of an acquaintance named Shichiro Kato. Honda also established the Art Piston Ring Research Centre. However, success in the field of piston rings eluded Honda as his early attempts were unsuccessful. He soon realised that he needed to learn more about metallurgy and, thus, enrolled himself at the Hamamatsu Industrial Learning Institute. After attaining success in making piston rings, Honda left Art Shokai to become president of Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry.

Becoming the president of his newly established business was the easy part but massproducing piston rings to manufacturers’ standards was difficult. But nothing stopped Honda from taking up this challenge. After a few years, the company was able to mass produce piston rings. Honda was finally seeing success, when suddenly, Japan entered World War II, and everything turned upside down for the country. Honda’s company was taken over by the Ministry of Munitions, who turned the factory into a production facility for aircraft propellers. This was the time when Honda discovered automation when he built an automatic milling machine for propellers. Unfortunately, air raids became frequent and, by January 1945, the Yamashita and Iwata plants were completely destroyed. The War changed everything for Honda.

You don’t measure a man’s greatness by his physical size, but by his acts, by the impact he makes on human history.”

—Soichiro Honda