"Unlike many other Japanese companies, age and education don't mean anything at Honda," said Noboru Sato, a Nagoya University guest professor and former Honda executive, who wrote a book about the automaker's talent development. "People with a challenging spirit will get rewarded."

Mukumoto became a fan of Honda after reading a comic book in primary school about Soichiro. He joined the company at 19 after studying machinery at a vocational high school in Okayama Prefecture, western Japan.

Mountain roads

A car aficionado who drives a Honda S2000 open-top sportscar to work, Mukumoto likes to zip through the mountain roads of Tochigi, an area north of Tokyo that's famous for its Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. "I feel like I can have conversations with the car driving there," he said.

Honda is wagering that the S660 will speak to buyers of Japan's kei minicars.

These tiny cars made up about 40 percent of total new car sales last year, aided by benefits including lower tax rates and a price war between market leaders Suzuki Motor Corp and Daihatsu Motor Co.

Honda's soft-top rear-wheel drive S660 with a mid-mounted engine will sell from 2 million yen ($16,760), competing with Daihatsu's Copen, a front-wheel drive with a retractable hard top that starts from 1.8 million yen. Before the S660, Honda had produced an open-top kei sportscar, named Beat, from 1991 to 1996 in Japan.