Case Study: Ben The Honda Technical Research Institute

Honda’s corporate headquarters are located in Aoyama in central Tokyo, Japan. That’s where I find myself on a frosty March morning after visiting the Honda Performance Manufacturing Center 48 hours ago. For your information, the latest NSX is at that moment being built at the Honda Manufacturing Centre which is why I feel honored visiting the corporate headquarters of one of the best car manufacturers thousands of miles away from home. I was looking forward to hear the real story from the people behind the phenomenal success of the “H badge” and had a reliable contact waiting thanks to one “Sushi”, a real friendly guy. Mr. Sushi, or in the local lingo Sushi-san, had actually done me a big one, setting up a meeting with the one and only Ben

The institute’s goal was to develop and manufacture 2-cycle motorcycle engines. The company as we know it now, Honda Motor Company Ltd, was established two years later in 1948. By 1959 Honda had expended to the US where it set up a small shop in Los Angeles complete with a staff of six and three of their best motorbikes, and a big dream. Fifty years later the company’s motorbikes could be found roaming the streets in almost every state, from the little 50cc Super Cub to high-speed models such as the

Soichiro, the founder, began as a bicycle builder back in 1946. It was around the same time when he chanced upon several 50cc engines meant to be used as portable radio generators in the Second World War. His idea of attaching the generators to a bicycle gave rise to Honda. You can even see a fine example of these original machines displayed in the lobby of the company’s headquarters in Tokyo. Soichiro went further to develop the Model A which used a real engine made by the company. By 1964, Honda was the world’s largest manufacturer of motorbikes, a title the company has refused to relinquish up to