Editing Soichiro Honda (section)

== Early years ==
Honda was born in Kōmyō village, [[Iwata District, Shizuoka]], near [[Hamamatsu]] on November 17, 1906. He spent his early childhood helping his father, Gihei Honda, a [[blacksmith]], with his bicycle repair business. At the time his mother, Mika Honda, was a weaver.<ref name=Sharma>{{cite web|last=Sharma|first=Aditya|title=Honda - It Ain't A Dream Without Everyone Being A Part Of It|url=http://autospace.co/honda/|publisher=AutoSpace|access-date=13 August 2013|date=31 October 2012|quote=Mr. Honda wasn’t satisfied with the use of a readymade engine, he wanted to engineer and invent the future of his company.}}</ref> Honda was not interested in traditional education. His school handed grade reports to the children, but required that they be returned stamped with the family seal, to make sure that a parent had seen it. Honda created a stamp to forge his family seal out of a used rubber bicycle pedal cover.<ref name=Tremayne/> The fraud was soon discovered when he started to make forged stamps for other children. Honda was unaware that the stamp was supposed to be mirror-imaged. His family name 本田 (Honda) is symmetrical when written vertically, so it did not cause a problem, but some of the other children's family names were not.{{cn|date=August 2018}} 

Even as a toddler, Honda had been thrilled by the first car that was ever seen in his village. In later life, he would often say that he could never forget the smell of oil it gave off, saying that it smelled "like perfume".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://world.honda.com/history/limitlessdreams/joyofmanufacturing/text/01.html|title=Honda Worldwide - History|work=honda.com|access-date=4 December 2016}}</ref>
Soichiro once borrowed one of his father's bicycles to see a demonstration of an airplane made by pilot [[Art Smith (pilot)|Art Smith]], which cemented his love for machinery and invention.<ref name=Tremayne>{{cite web|last=Tremayne|first=David|title=Soichiro Honda: The man behind a legend|url=http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ftdt017.html|work=Grandprix.com|publisher=Inside F1, Inc.|access-date=13 August 2013|date=17 January 2001|quote=When Gihei Honda learned what his son had done to get to the airfield, he was more impressed with his initiative, determination and resilience than he was angry with him for taking the money and the bike.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015070520/http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ftdt017.html|archive-date=15 October 2013|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> 

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. 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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Joy of Manufacturing|url=http://world.honda.com/history/limitlessdreams/joyofmanufacturing/text/01.html|work=Honda History|publisher=Honda Motor Co., Ltd.|access-date=13 August 2013|quote=All kinds of cars were brought to Art Shokai for repair, making it an ideal place for Honda to work and study, eager–even greedy–as he was in his pursuit of knowledge.}}</ref>

Honda raced a turbocharged [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] in the "1st Japan Automobile Race" at Tamagawa Speedway in 1936. He crashed and seriously injured his left eye. His brother was also injured. After that, he quit racing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oldracingcars.com/driver/Soichiro_Honda|title=Soichiro Honda|first=Allen|last=Brown|website=oldracingcars.com|access-date=20 August 2018}}</ref>