Takeo Fujisawa

Takeo Fujisawa, born on 10 November 1910 and died on 30 December 1988, was a Japanese businessman who co-founded Honda Motor Co., Ltd. alongside Soichiro Honda. Fujisawa oversaw the financial side of the company while Honda handled the engineering and product development. Together they took the business from a small manufacturer of bicycle engines to a worldwide car manufacturer. He was born in Yuki, Ibaraki, worked as a traveling salesman of steel products in Tokyo from 1934, and entered the newly founded Honda in 1949. He was promoted to vice-president in 1964 and retired in 1973, at the same time as Soichiro Honda, becoming a corporate adviser to the company. He died of a heart attack in December 1988 and was posthumously decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun, Third Class.