Subaru (スバル?)Japanese pronunciation: [subaɽu]; English pronunciation: /ˈsuːbəruː/ soo-bə-roo is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI).
Subaru is internationally known for their use of the boxer engine layout popularized in cars by the Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 911, in most of their vehicles above 1500cc as well as their use of the all wheel drive drivetrain layout, first introduced in 1972, that became standard equipment for mid-size and smaller cars in most international markets as of 1996, and is now standard in all Subaru vehicles. They also offer many turbocharged versions of their passenger cars, such as the sporty Impreza WRX.
Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent company of Subaru, is currently in a partial partnership with Toyota Motor Corporation, which owns 16.5% of FHI.
Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster, which in turn inspires the Subaru logo and alludes to the six companies that merged to create FHI.
FHI started out as The Aircraft Research Laboratory in 1917 headed by Chikuhei Nakajima. In 1932, the company was reorganized as Nakajima Aircraft Company, Ltd and soon became the primary manufacturer of aircraft for Japan during World War II. At the end of the Second World War Nakajima Aircraft was again reorganized, this time as Fuji Sangyo Co, Ltd. In 1946, the company created the Fuji Rabbit motor scooter with spare aircraft parts from the war. In 1950, Fuji Sangyo was divided into 12 smaller corporations according to the Japanese Government's 1950 Corporate Credit Rearrangement Act, anti-zaibatsu legislation, but between 1953–1955, four of these corporations and a newly formed corporation Fuji Kogyo, a scooter manufacturer; coachbuilders Fuji Jidosha; engine manufacturers Omiya Fuji Kogyo; chassis builders Utsunomiya Sharyo and the Tokyo Fuji Dangyo trading company[citation needed] decided to merge together to form the Fuji Heavy Industries known today.
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