The brand logo depicts a constellation of six stars and the word "Subaru" means pleiades. The beginnings of the concern are in 1917. Then the Japanese - Chikuhei Nakajima, who was considered a pioneer in Japanese aviation technology, founded the Nakajima Aircraft Company. However, the first car appeared only in 1954.
The plant developed very dynamically and became famous mainly for fighter aircraft, which were produced at the beginning of World War II. After its completion, Nakajima factories were demilitarized and the group was divided into 12 separate enterprises. Six of them were reunited in 1953 to form Fuji Heavy Industries. The concern dealt with, among others production of construction equipment, various machines and household appliances. A division was also created to deal with the automotive industry.
In 1954 a prototype of a passenger car was built, which operated under the name P-1. A year later, the Subaru 1500 debuted. The vehicle had independent front wheel suspension, rear mounted torsion beam applications, and independent trailing arms. The distribution network turned out to be a problem, car sales were stopped and the company began to produce buses. However, the production of cars was resumed and the Subaru 360 was created in 1958, which motorized Japan and was limited to 1970. A Sambar truck was also built on its chassis.