Honda Motor Co., Ltd., an international industrial company, known primarily as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles, is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with production capacities scattered all over the world.

Histories of many companies are associated with the names of persons who founded them and gave the companies their own names. Exactly the same scenario can be observed with Honda Motor. Soichiro Honda founded the company in 1948 and for twenty five years, from 1948 to 1973, he has been the President of Honda.

His father had a small family business for repair and subsequent sale of old bicycles. From the early childhood Soichiro actively helped him thus diving into the world of mechanisms. After a primary school the young Soichiro Honda went to Tokyo, where he was hired as a laborer to a motor repair shop, which owner noticed a talented and resourceful newcomer and very soon began to trust him important orders. Moreover, being a passionate racing driver, the owner instructed Soichiro to build a race car. The boy coped with the task excellently, and the car won the race, which made a wonderful advertising to the workshop.

In 1938 he founded the company Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry, which was involved in the production of various accessories for vehicles. By the way, many products have been made in accord with Soichiro patents which he has been granted by then. It is worth noting that Honda who lived up to 91, has been granted with several hundred patents.

After the Second World War Soichiro Honda established a new company named Honda Technical Research Institute, which in 1948 changed the name to Honda Motor Company. At that time two persons, Takeo Fujisawa and Kiyoshi Kawashima, joined the company and played an important role in its formation. Takeo Fujisawa was responsible for financial questions and sales, Kiyoshi Kawashima, being an excellent engineer, took responsibility for technical issues.

Honda Motor Company’s business was production of motorcycles, the first of which was called «Dream», a very successful model. By 1955 Honda has become the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Japan. Honda position in the domestic and later in the international market has been strengthened by numerous victories in motorcycle racings. In 1963 Honda launched a car production line.

The company's decision to enter the car international market was disapproved by the Japanese government, as it was considered that Honda’s competition with Japanese brands such as Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi in the world market would eventually adversely affect the interests of the country. But the company management has ignored the government pressure. After the 1973 energy crisis (a sharp increase of oil prices due to the restrictions on oil production, introduced by the Gulf countries) Honda fuel-efficient vehicles have become bestsellers in the US market. In 2009 Honda car advertising was recognized as the best one in the United Kingdom. By the end of 2012 the UK insurers have admitted Honda to be the most reliable cars.

Nowadays the company is famous not only for motorcycles and cars, but also for light aircraft (Honda Jet), boats (Honda Marine), engines of various types and capacities (Honda Engines), various special equipment. Moreover some scientific solutions are quiet unusual: in 2000 Asimo robot, a prototype of future domestic assistant, was presented.