The Honda Foundation was established in December 1977 by donations from the founder of Honda Motor Company, Soichiro Honda, and his younger brother, Benjiro. The Foundation was established as a result of the first DISCOVERIES International Symposium that had been held the previous year.

DISCOVERIES is the acronym for "Definition and Identification Studies on Conveyance of Values, Effects and Risks Inherent in Environment Synthesis." At this first symposium issues on how to harmonize human activities with the earth’s environment were actively discussed from the perspective of a broad range of different fields. The response to this approach was huge with mounting requests to continue and expand these discussions. The Foundation was thus established in 1977 to address these issues.

The Foundation has since inception held many forums with researchers across the borders and disciplines for their active discussion concerning the roles and potentials of ecotechnology. Recently Asia has been our focus, starting with the 2002 China-Japan-Korea international symposium on the regional cooperation in East Asia.

In 1980 the Foundation established an international award, the Honda Prize, to recognize individuals or groups for distinguished contributions in the field of ecotechnology. Since then, the Foundation has continued activities to honor scientists who have contributed new value to the world.

In 2006 the scholarship program Honda Young Engineer and Scientist’s Award, Y-E-S Award was established to foster the next generation of leaders in the field of science and technology. In order to attract more talented people in this field the Foundation plans to broaden its scope in the future, especially for students in Asia.
In this manner, the Foundation has broadened its activities in keeping with the times up through the present. The basis for that has been the fervent wish of our founder, Soichiro Honda that "Science and technology must serve to ensure peoples’ happiness." This is our mission at the Honda Foundation.