In his late teens in the early 1970s, Eric Clapton fan and rebellious guitarist Kotaro Shige dreamed of being a rock star. That goal was dashed when his group could only manage third place in a nationwide band contest, and he abandoned his dream of stage stardom.Looking back, Honda's R&D chief is glad his band didn't make the grade back then. "Unless you're really good, musicians in Japan just can't make any money!" Motor Trend sat down with the Jimmy Page of Japan's car industry at Honda's HQs in central Tokyo for a chat about his life and passions, and what to expect from Honda in the near future.

Motor Trend: The earthquake and tsunami really shook Japan up on March 11. Where were you when it hit, and was your family OK?

Kotaro Shige: I was actually in Kyoto at the time, giving a lecture on our new Jazz Shuttle. The building shook a little but not nearly as much as it did in Tokyo and further north. My wife was shooting a truck catalogue in Hitachi, a place very close to the earthquake zone. Luckily I reached her the first time I phoned, because mobile phone communication soon went down. She told me that she was on the top of a hill photographing the trucks so she would not be exposed to tsunamis. Only then could I relax.

MT: And what happened to your plants and R&D center?

KS: We had a very hard time. Our main R&D center where I work is in the Tochigi region, which is close to the disaster area. Our plants were damaged pretty badly and we had to shut down everything as a precaution. Then we had to run safety checks on all our machinery. We are still trying to fix the damage. Another big problem is parts. Our parts supply chain has been seriously affected both domestically and internationally, which means that we can only build cars that we have parts for. The only good thing is the weakening yen, which will make our products cheaper overseas.