Dreams - Satoru Azumi | The Power of Dreams | About Honda

Hi Mr. Azumi, what is your dream?

When I was small, Japan was in the midst of the “Supercar Boom.” So, I saw supercar cards every day and went to see supercar shows on the weekends. I loved cars and was very excited about them. As I grew older, I started to have interest in motorbikes and went to see the World Grand Prix with my friends.
As well as looking forward to the future, I hope to see a world that allows children and all kinds of people to feel excited about the automobiles and motorbikes that we make.

What is the driving force behind your dream?

When I walk through the town, ride in a car, or go touring by motorbike, I often see cars that I was involved in the development of. Sometimes, I see people gathering at events like owners’ meetings. I am very pleased to see such things, and I feel a true joy that I am involved in this job.
The other day, I had the opportunity to participate in the “Enjoy Honda” event. During this experience, we were allowed to exhibit FREED’s cars that we had made. Many visitors came to this event, and among them, there were so many families with small children that also showed up. I saw them having fun and grinning big smiles.
Our brand concept of FREED is “Smile Just Right Mover,” with the subtitle “Peace of mind and smile every day.” When I see all types of families enjoying a drive in these cars, I really feel honored to be involved in this job.

Did you confront any difficulties on the way to achieving your dream?

We created this “FREED” car, which is what we call a “just-right” car. The term “just-right” is very convenient, but it is difficult to specifically implement it in a tangible form. That is to say, we had a hard time making something that we felt was “just-right.” As team members, we tried to make more suitable “just-right” cars, while discussing the issue and cooperating with people in the waigaya* way.　We made progress through repeated conversations and much agony, while exerting great effort. The greatest challenges were to converse with each other, taking a long time, and to actually touch and ride in the products, in order to determine the exact size and if a large or smaller car would be best.
* waigaya: A discussion method used at Honda. Many people, regardless of job type, age, or gender, casually discuss different issues.

What is your next challenge?

We are now entering an era in which monozukuri (that is, the art of “making things”) is very difficult.
There are many regulations and various restrictions regarding the environment, and these place excessive burdens on us. Given this, I feel that it will be extremely difficult to create new offerings. Nevertheless, we would like to create things that make our customers happy as quickly as possible. In order to do this, while we are taking on various challenges, we would like to make products that will be useful for our customers. I think that to create new things itself is a challenge. Therefore, my dream as an engineer is to continue to create things that support customers’ lifestyles and make them happy.