Honda Collection Hall in Japan to reopen March 1, 2024

If you need another excuse to visit Japan, Honda announced today that the Honda Collection Hall will reopen March 1, 2024. One of the great car museums of Japan, the three-story building has been closed for renovations since the beginning of December. The extensive, three-month renewal has arranged exhibits to tell the story from Honda’s founding days to present so visitors can experience the monumental challenges the company faced and see how it overcame them.

The Honda Collection hall was opened in 1998 to mark the company’s 50th anniversary. Last year was the 25th anniversary of the museum itself. The exhibits include hundreds of cars, motorcycles, race vehicles, and power equipment products. The lobby now even includes a HondaJet that visitors can enter and explore. Honda has released a time-lapse video (above) of how they shoved an entire plane into the building. Audio guides can also be rented at the lobby for a self-guided tour.

The history of Honda will be divided into four major sections, each located in one wing of the museum. The first takes visitors from Honda’s founding in 1948 and its auxiliary bicycle engines to Honda’s first victories wins at the Isle of Man TT, then to the launch of the Super Cub and the first Formula One wins. The following wing covers 1970 to about 1985, the age of Honda’s expansion into carmaking, including the revolutionary Civic CVCC, and onto its second era of Formula One success

The next gallery shows Honda’s evolution into a builder of world class cars, including development stories of the Legend and NSX. The final wing demonstrates Honda’s research into advanced technologies like the ASIMO robot and HondaJet.

Additionally, there will be several special exhibits opening March 1. The first is called “CB History” and traces the origins of the CB line of motorcycles, which revolutionized the superbike. This exhibit not only includes Honda CB bikes up to the CB750Four, but also British, Italian, and German bikes that were popular at the time. It also includes the N360 kei car, whose engine was derived from the CB’s.

Another exhibit called “The Pedigree of Works Racers” will feature every NR and NSR bike that Honda owns. These bikes were essentially road-legal bikes with engineering and design derived from top-level racing motorcycles.

Finally, there will be two smaller exhibits celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Gold Wing and the 25th anniversary of the S2000, which was released in 1999. Honda will roll out the very first S2000 produced, and include other popular open-top cars from around the world.

So if you’re planning a trip to Japan (and now is a good time to visit due to the extremely favorable exchange rate), be sure to add the Honda Collection Hall to your list.