I learned to drive in a local driving school when I was 16 years old. And the very first car I owned was the Mazda R360 - a two-door, four-seater kei car. I loved it so much that I drove it every day. It was so much fun! Looking back, that was first point of contact with Mazda. However, my biggest moment with Mazda was when it won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1991. I was deeply impressed with it because I had worked on the primary stage of development of the 787B.
I entered the competition for the first time in 1974, and raced back to back from 1981 to 2008, often for Mazda, which led to me being nicknamed 'Mr Le Mans' in Japan. In the early 1990s, all the racing teams, including Mazda, started adopting new technologies. It was obvious that the cutting-edge computer tech would bring all kinds of benefits. But, at the same time, we reminded ourselves to keep the cars human-centric regardless of how advanced they could be. At the end of the day, it's the drivers who would be racing them on the circuit.
＜Interviewed in 2019＞