39 years of the Honda Aoyama Building: Incorporating in its Structure the Philosophy and Safety Concepts of Founders Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa | Honda Stories

At the time, Soichiro was said to have remarked to those around him that as a company grows larger, the power of the back office (administrative division) becomes stronger, and that many companies lose momentum as soon as a new building is constructed. Soichiro, who thoroughly adhered to a hands-on approach, wanted to avoid such a situation by all means. The great inventions of the past were overwhelmingly made by small and medium-sized enterprises rather than those invented by large corporations. Therefore, he said, “Never forget the town factory spirit.” The most important guideline of the Aoyama Building, “From an office to a place of thought,” came from this idea.

The engineers of that time look back and say that the factory was filled with the idea of everyone thinking, and making, together. Soichiro’s desire not to maintain this spirit in the Aoyama Building is reflected in the rewarding of improvement proposals, the idea contest after working hours at the factory, and not making the carpet in the head office floor more luxurious than at the factory.

Takeo Fujisawa reflected on his interactions with the architectural designers when the Aoyama Building was first designed.

“The world has changed so much, and we are about to enter the 21st century, so what is different about this from the buildings of the 1960s?　It cannot be a normal design and structure that the world is used to, which is embarrassing. Honda takes pride with its consistently high overall level of technology. It is very easy to design a factory building to be user-friendly, but the headquarters is shapeless. This is not good enough. Also, Honda was not made by one person. I wanted the opinions of everyone who will use this place, as they are thinking hard, to be reflected. That is what I told the architects, which resulted in the current building (Aoyama Building). That is why no other company can imitate us.”

As many as 700 Honda engineers were said to be involved in the Aoyama Building construction project. Takeo Fujisawa’s will and Soichiro Honda’s philosophy. Although the two founders had very different personalities, their last major project, to pass the baton to the next generation, was today’s Aoyama Building.

To carry on the philosophy of the founders in the Aoyama Building, which changes its form with the times and with Honda’s new dreams. This is the next major task for Honda.