2.  Honda was born
in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan on
November 17, 1906. He spent his
early childhood helping his father,
Gihei, a blacksmith, with his bicycle
repair business. At the time his
mother, Mika, was a weaver. Honda
was not interested in traditional
education, his school handed grade
reports to the children, but required
that it will be returned stamped
with the family seal, to make sure
that a parent had seen it.

3.  Soichiro created a stamp to forge his family
seal out of an used rubber bicycle pedal cover.
The fraud was soon discovered when Honda
started to make forged stamps for other
children. Honda did not realize that the stamp
had to be mirror-imaged. His family name 本田
was symmetrical when written vertically, so it
did not cause a problem, but some of other
children's family names were not.

4.  Soichiro once borrowed one of his father's
bicycles to see a demonstration of an airplane
made by pilot Art Smith, which cemented his
love for machinery and invention.
 At 15, without any formal education, Honda
left home and headed to Tokyo to look for
work. He obtained an apprenticeship at a
garage in 1922, and after some hesitation over
his employment, he stayed for six
years, working as a car mechanic before
returning home to start his own auto repair
business in 1928 at the age of 22.

6.  In 1937, Honda founded Tōkai Seiki to produce piston
rings for Toyota. During World War II, a US B-
29 bomber attack destroyed Tōkai Seiki's Yamashita
plant in 1944 and the Itawa plant collapsed in the 1945
Mikawa earthquake. After the war, Honda sold the
salvageable remains of the company to Toyota for
¥450,000 and used the proceeds to found the Honda
Technical Research Institute in October 1946. In 1948 he
started producing complete motorcycles as president of
the Honda Motor Company. Honda turned the
company into a billion-dollar multinational that
produced the best-selling motorcycles in the world.
Honda's engineering and marketing skills resulted in
Honda motorcycles outselling Triumph and Harley-
Davidson in their respective home markets. In 1959
Honda Motorcycles opened its first dealership in the
United States.

7.  Honda remained president until his retirement in
1973, where he stayed on as director and was appointed
"supreme adviser" in 1983. His status was such
that People magazine placed him on their "25 Most
Intriguing People of the Year" list for 1980, dubbing him
"the Japanese Henry Ford." In retirement Honda busied
himself with work connected with the Honda
Foundation.

8.  Even at his advanced age, Soichiro and his wife Sachi
both held private pilot's licenses. He also
enjoyed skiing, hang-gliding and ballooning at 77, and
he was a highly accomplished artist. He and Fujisawa
made a pact never to force their own sons to join the
company. His son, Hirotoshi Honda, was the founder
and former CEO of Mugen Motorsports, a tuner for
Honda vehicles who also created original racing
vehicles.
 Soichiro Honda died on August 5, 1991 of liver failure.

9.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soichiro_Hond
a#cite_no7te-Alexander2008-1
 http://astrumpeople.com/soichiro-honda-
biography-a-great-history-of-japanese-car-
manufacturer/