As we sit halfway around the world, essentially powerless to change the events unfolding in Japan, there still comes the feeling that we should be doing something, anything, to aid the people affected by the recent 9.0 earthquake, subsequent tsunami, and unfolding nuclear disaster.
Rising to a call of action, Moto for Japan is an effort by a group of motorcyclists that donates money to the American Red Cross via an inspired charitable platform developed by none other than Hollywood’s Edward Norton. The effort has been making the rounds on the internet the past two days, and its creators, Greg Hatton and Jon Bekefy, should be praised for their thoughtful thinking.
Perhaps a different take on how to best bring aid to Japan, I got an interesting message from Mark Gardiner, who pointed out “Japan is not Haiti. By the time we can actually deliver bottled water and blankets to the scene, people will have walked to parts of Japan that are relatively unscathed. If you want to help Japan, buy Honda stock.” I think ‘The Backmarker’ is grasping a key point here, and with permission, we’ve reproduced his article on the subject as a guest post after the jump. – Jensen
I had this crazy dream a few nights ago. I was over in Japan, in the area that has been wrecked by the tsunami. I was riding some kind of trail bike, with a huge Acerbis fuel tank of the type used by Dakar racers. And the bike was fitted with an electrical generator and inverter, so people could plug household appliances into it. People were running to me, getting me to charge their cell phones.
The next day, I read that when Honda shut down motorcycle production, the company sent 1,000 employees home with generators. That’s a sort of full circle. The first Honda company was a factory supplying piston rings to Toyota, before WWII. That factory was destroyed in the war, and so were all the Toyota factories. So, Soichiro Honda needed another idea. The very first ‘Hondas’ were a few dozen bicycles fitted with tiny motors that he scrounged up in the aftermath of the war. The motors were actually intended for use as generators. They were of a type used to power radios at remote observation posts. If memory serves, Honda found about fifty of them. Those were his first mopeds, and they sold like hotcakes.
Honda then went to a whole bunch of bicycle shops, and told the shop owners that if they invested enough money to allow him to start making his own motors, he’d provide them with a great new product. Those small bike shop owners (there were thousands of independent bicycle shops in Japan at the time) provided the capital that started the company we now all know.
Honda stock took a $#!+ kicking last week, dropping about $10 in the mid-30 range. It’s already started to come back a bit, as investors realize that it’s still a great company with great ideas and great products, that are made and purchased all over the world. Judging from the news on the nuclear reactor front, it’s going to get worse in Japan before it gets better. But Japan, and companies like Honda, saw far worse in 1945.
Japan’s not Haiti. What will save it? Not blankets, bottled water, MREs, and airlifts of fuel. Although those would be mighty welcome if they could be delivered today, they won’t arrive for a week or more. By then, survivors of the quake and tsunami will have made it to unscathed areas where their own friends and families, and countrymen, will ensure that basic needs are met.
Making their nuclear reactors safe is a separate problem. Come what may, Japan’s going to enter a new and capital-intensive phase soon. What will save it is precisely the kind of innovation and can-do spirit that made Honda great the first time. The world needs to see that Japan’s down but not out, and that the billions of dollars of investment that will be needed to rebuild are just that, an investment. Because the world’s attention span is sadly short, and when sympathy stops driving charity, what will remain is a desire for profit.
You want to help? For once, it’s easy and by helping, you’ll actually make money: Buy Honda stock right now.
This is actually a really good idea, might be worth throwing a disclaimer under the article though incase people buy and it goes down again for whatever reason.
RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Do Something Good for Japan, & Yourself. Buy Honda Stock – http://aspha.lt/di #motorcycle
What’s wrong with other Japanese companies’ stocks? Why only Honda??
Nothing’s wrong with other companies.
I wrote about Honda because, a.) the early history of Honda tracks so closely with Japan’s current crisis; b.) no company is has such close ties to motorcycles and motorcycle racing; and finally c.) because – although only a moron would take financial advice from a motorcycle journalist – I feel that the companies most worthy of long-term investment are great brands with strong R&D departments.