Almost everyone assumes Mugen is Honda’s in-house tuning arm, the way TRD is Toyota’s or NISMO is Nissan’s.
It is not, and it never has been. There is no capital relationship between Mugen and Honda Motor. Japanese sources put it bluntly: a completely separate company, a contractual partner, not a subsidiary.
The Short Version
- Founded March 1973 in Asaka, Saitama, by Hirotoshi Honda — Soichiro Honda’s eldest son — with Nobuhiko Kawamoto, later Honda Motor’s fourth president.
- No equity link to Honda Motor. Honda’s own site tells customers to contact M-TEC directly about Mugen products.
- The business moved to M-TEC Co., Ltd. on 1 April 2004. The old company still exists and licenses the trademark.
- The brand continued unbroken through the handover.
- F1 engine supplier 1992–2000 as Mugen-Honda, four wins, the first at Monaco in 1996.
Why It Exists at All
Soichiro Honda had a policy of keeping family out of Honda Motor’s management. His eldest son, Hirotoshi, wanted to build racing engines. So rather than joining the family company, he founded his own in March 1973, in Asaka, Saitama — with Nobuhiko Kawamoto, who would later run Honda Motor.
That origin explains the relationship precisely. Mugen has always been close to Honda by history, engineering culture and personnel, and separate from it by ownership. It is a partnership, not a division.
The practical consequence for a buyer: Honda’s own accessories site directs Mugen enquiries to M-TEC, the manufacturer. Mugen parts are not Honda genuine accessories. M-TEC does run a Honda-dealer-facing portal listing parts by current model — Civic, Fit, N-BOX, ZR-V, Vezel — so dealers handle them. But they are Mugen parts sold through Honda dealers, not Honda parts.
What Happened in 2004
This is the question buyers actually ask, usually as “is Mugen still Mugen?”
The answer is yes, with a corporate reorganisation in between.
A tax case arose in the early 2000s concerning the original company’s accounts, and it resulted in a criminal conviction of the founder that was finalised by Japan’s Supreme Court in 2010. We mention it because it is a matter of public record and it is the reason for what followed; we are not going to dwell on it, because it is not what you came here to read about.
What followed is the part that matters. M-TEC Co., Ltd. was incorporated on 1 October 2003. On 1 April 2004, essentially the whole business — engines, parts, motorsport — transferred to it.
The original company still exists, at the same address, holding the MUGEN trademark, which it licenses exclusively to M-TEC. So the brand never changed hands in any sense a customer would notice, and there is no “before and after” quality break to look for in a used part.
M-TEC Today
| Company | M-TEC Co., Ltd. (株式会社M-TEC) |
| Established | 1 October 2003 |
| Capital | ¥30,000,000 |
| Head office | Hizaori-cho, Asaka City, Saitama |
| Representative director | Tomoyuki Hashimoto |
| Overseas | MUGEN America Inc. (US), MUGEN EURO Co., Limited (UK) |
The company still lists an employee figure dated October 2015 on that page, which we have not repeated because it is a decade stale.
The Racing Record
This is where Mugen earned the reputation that sells the wheels.
Formula One, 1992–2000, badged Mugen-Honda. Footwork in 1992–93, Team Lotus in 1994, Ligier in 1995–97, Jordan in 1998–2000. Four wins, the first at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix with Olivier Panis in the Ligier — one of the more improbable results in modern Formula One.
Super GT / JGTC: GT500 titles in 2000 and 2002; GT300 in 2004 and 2013.
Super Formula: drivers’ titles in 2013, 2018 and 2021, and both team and driver in 2022.
Isle of Man TT: the Shinden electric motorcycle project entered TT Zero from 2012, finished second in class in 2012 and 2013, then won six consecutive TT Zero titles from 2014 to 2019. That is a remarkable run in a class most people have never heard of, and it is a genuine engineering credential.
What This Means When You Are Buying
“Honda Mugen” is not a thing. If a listing implies the wheel is a Honda factory part, it is wrong — not necessarily dishonestly, but wrong. Mugen is a separate manufacturer.
The 2004 change is not a quality watershed. Parts made before and after the transfer come from the same operation. You do not need to prefer one era.
The racing record is real and is not marketing. A company that supplied Formula One engines for nine years and won the Isle of Man six times running is not a styling house.
What We Could Not Verify
- M-TEC’s current employee count. The official page gives a 2015 figure.
- Whether Honda dealers formally resell Mugen parts as fitted options at point of sale, or simply direct customers to M-TEC. Neither site spells it out.
- Details of the original tax investigation timeline beyond what is on the public record.
Related Guides
- Mugen wheels: the GP, the TT, and why they are not all 5×114.3
- Honda Civic and Honda S2000
- Honda / Acura NSX
- RAYS — who makes the Mugen TT’s centre cap
Finding Mugen Parts
Mugen is a domestic Japanese brand and most of what exists is here. Tell us the Honda and the part through the Request page.