CarGene
Kunimichi Odagaki

Kunimichi Odagaki

HondaDevelopment lead

Development lead who kept studying after a minivan for North America was cancelled, and created the first Odyssey out of a "shadow project"

Timeline

  1. 1974

    Oji Seiki Co., Ltd.

  2. 1977

    Joined

    Honda R&D Co., Ltd.

  3. 1988

    Chief Engineer

  4. 1994
    Odyssey 1st generation
    Odyssey 1st generation

    1994–1999Development lead

    Worked with

    30,000 dollars a car

    Odagaki was asked to build a large minivan for America, and with Yasuaki Asaki and others studied how minivans were used in the US. Building it with the Legend's V6 at a new plant would cost no less than 30,000 dollars a car, which would not sell in a market averaging about 20,000 dollars. He had also prepared an alternative using the four-cylinder Accord, but had no chance to present it, and development for North America was cancelled after just four months. Even so, Odagaki argued that the study of a compact minivan should continue.

    The Chariot from Lost in Space

    Watching his children fight on a long drive home for the holidays, Odagaki pictured a car with three rows of individual seats you could walk through, like the Chariot exploration vehicle in Lost in Space, which he had been crazy about as a child. Designers objected that three rows of seats would never look good, so he came up with stowing the third row under the floor when not in use, and that third-row seat that flips over and folds away was born.

    Just the sliding doors

    Domestic sales were slow to come around, and at one point he was asked to compromise and adopt sliding doors, just that. Odagaki was tempted, thinking that accepting this would make the car happen. Then Yasuaki Asaki came over and pressed him: after coming this far, are you going to compromise? Four doors that make getting in and out smart are exactly what defines our car. Odagaki snapped out of it and kept persuading each department without giving up.

  5. 1995

    Executive Chief Engineer

  6. 1998

    General Manager, Product Planning Office

  7. 2000

    Managing Director (General Manager, Product and Technology Planning Office)

  8. 2003

    Senior Managing Director (head of automobile operations)

  9. 2005

    Director and Executive Vice President (head of automobile operations)

  10. 2007

    Keihin CorporationRepresentative Director and Executive Vice President

  11. 2008

    Representative Director and President

Profile

From Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture. Graduated from Himeji Institute of Technology in 1974. Development leader (LPL) of the first-generation Odyssey. Former executive vice president of Honda R&D Co., Ltd.

Translated from Japanese sources.

Honda engineers

All Honda engineers