Business: Youth Will Be Saved

In a country where age has traditionally been an important criterion for industrial command, Hon da Motor Co. was long conspicuous for the youth of its leadership; Soichiro Honda founded the company in 1948 when he was only 42. Now, having built it into a colossus with sales of $1.2 billion a year, he is returning the company to the junior side of the generation gap by retiring at 67 and turning over the reins to Kiyoshi Kawashima, 45, a quiet, self-deprecating engineer who at 45 is at least 15 years younger than most Japanese chief executives.

The choice was almost inevitable: Kawashima personifies the company almost as much as Honda. Indeed, as a new graduate of a technical high school, he joined Honda the entrepreneur a year before Honda the company was formed. From the start, Kawashima designed motorcycles. In 1959 he was put in charge of Honda’s first entries in Grand Prix motorcycle races; the firm picked up the team prize. In 1971 he supervised development of a clean, efficient “stratified charge” auto engine that recently passed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency antipollution tests with flying colors. He will have to draw on all his talents to keep Honda growing now, and he knows it. Though ultimately optimistic, he believes that the oil shortage will push Japan—and Honda—into a full-fledged recession next year.