Honda

Founder Soichiro Honda’s first dealings with the automobile industry began in 1937 when, with Kato Shichiro, he founded Tōkai Seiki or Eastern Sea Precision Machine Company. Tōkai Seiki’s main line of business was supplying piston rings for Toyota.

After World War II Honda sold what remained of his company’s assets to Toyota, and used that money to start the Honda Technical Research Institute, in 1946, which began building affordable motorcycles. In 1949, Honda Motor Company was incorporated with the help of businessman Takeo Fujisawa.

By 1964 the company had become the world’s largest producer of motorcycles. The company’s first car was the T360 kei-class pickup truck. Over the years the company branched out into ever larger vehicles, but at home in Japan the company still retains a large share of the kei-car class.

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