Subaru Logo: Six Stars of the Pleiades

The six stars on every Subaru are the Pleiades, the star cluster Japan calls Subaru, a word that means to unite.

Country: Japan
Active: Since 1917
Founded by: Chikuhei Nakajima
Website: Official website ↗

A star cluster with an aircraft past

Look up on a clear night and you may spot the Subaru badge in the sky. The six stars on the grille are the Pleiades, a star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. In Japan it has always been called Subaru.

The company behind the cars began with aeroplanes, not automobiles. In 1917 Chikuhei Nakajima set up the Aircraft Research Laboratory, which became Nakajima Aircraft. After the war it was reorganised as Fuji Sangyo and switched to civilian goods. In 1950 it was split into 12 companies. Then, in 1953, five of them, including Fuji Kogyo, put up the capital to create Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. Two years later the new company absorbed all five.

For decades Subaru was only the name on the cars. That changed on 1 April 2017, when Fuji Heavy Industries became Subaru Corporation, a move the company timed to the 100th anniversary of Nakajima’s 1917 founding. Brand and company finally shared one name.

Mr Kita picks a name

The name came from Kenji Kita, the first president of Fuji Heavy Industries. According to Subaru Asia, Kita was set on building passenger cars, and in 1954 the company produced its first passenger prototype, the P-1. He was firm that Japanese cars should have Japanese names. Subaru Southern Africa adds that an invitation to employees to name the car produced nothing suitable, so Kita chose a name close to his heart.

Subaru, the Japanese name of the Pleiades, means to govern, gather together or unite. Subaru Asia points out that only six of the cluster’s stars can be seen with the naked eye, while a telescope shows about 250. Japan also knows the cluster as Mutsuraboshi, or six stars, a name that appears in very old texts such as the Kojiki and the Manyoshu. Subaru says it was the first brand to use a Japanese name for its vehicles.

Six stars, one company

The name works on two levels, and so does the badge. Subaru of America explains that the word means unite, and that the newly formed Fuji Heavy Industries adopted the Subaru cluster of stars as the official logo for its cars. In Subaru’s own explanation from Japan, the name symbolises the unity of the six companies related to Nakajima Aircraft that came together as Fuji Heavy Industries.

Most accounts, including Motor Fan in Japan and Jalopnik in the US, read the badge more precisely: the one large star stands for Fuji Heavy Industries and the five smaller stars for the companies that joined it. That reading fits the official story neatly, although the Subaru pages consulted for this article don’t spell out which star is which.

The look itself has stayed remarkably steady. Today’s badge is a blue oval holding six stars, set in a silver surround. According to Motor Fan, the six-star motif can already be seen on the Subaru 360, even though cars of that era also used other emblems, and the details have been refined over the years without changing the basic idea of six stars in a blue oval. Motor Fan also notes that Subaru reorganised its corporate identity around the six stars in 2003. Since the 2017 rename, the stars stand for the whole company, not just its cars.

Why six and not seven, when the Pleiades are often called the Seven Sisters? Subaru doesn’t present it as a design choice, but its own account gives the clue: only six of the stars are visible to the naked eye, and the old Japanese name Mutsuraboshi counts six.

Video: The History of Subaru (SubaruCanada)

From ladybird to Legacy

An aircraft maker’s habit of doing things its own way shows up again and again in the cars that wore the six stars.

Landmark Subarus, decade by decade

1958: Subaru 360. The company’s first mass-production car, a minicar launched on 3 March 1958 according to Subaru Southern Africa.
1966: Subaru 1000. The first Subaru with a horizontally opposed engine, a layout the brand still uses.
1972: Leone 4WD Estate Van. Subaru describes the Leone as Japan’s first domestically made passenger car with four-wheel drive.
1989: Legacy. In Subaru’s words, the car that led the station wagon boom in Japan.
1992: Impreza. According to Subaru Southern Africa, the Impreza WRX first appeared in the World Rally Championship in 1993.

Subaru is one of several Japanese carmakers on this site with a badge worth reading about. Compare the six stars with the winged M of Mazda, the three diamonds of Mitsubishi or the emblem of Toyota. For the craft behind marks like these, see how car logos are designed.

Frequently asked questions

What do the six stars on the Subaru logo mean?

They are the Pleiades star cluster, called Subaru in Japanese. Subaru links the name to the unity of the companies that formed Fuji Heavy Industries, and most accounts say the large star stands for Fuji Heavy Industries and the five small stars for the companies that joined it.

What does the word Subaru mean?

It is the Japanese name for the Pleiades, and it means to govern, gather together or unite.

Who named Subaru?

Kenji Kita, the first president of Fuji Heavy Industries. He believed Japanese cars should have Japanese names and chose Subaru for the company’s cars in the 1950s.

Why are there six stars and not seven?

According to Subaru Asia, only six stars of the Pleiades can be seen with the naked eye, and the old Japanese name for the cluster, Mutsuraboshi, means six stars.

When did Fuji Heavy Industries become Subaru Corporation?

On 1 April 2017, 100 years after Chikuhei Nakajima founded the Aircraft Research Laboratory that the company traces its roots to.