The name Subaru is unusual among major automakers because it does not come from a founder, family name, geographic location, or invented marketing term. It comes from the night sky.
Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades, a prominent open star cluster in the constellation Taurus. In Japan, the cluster has been known by that name for centuries, and its association with the Japanese word “subaru” predates the automobile company by a very long time.
That connection helps explain one of the world’s most recognizable automotive logos, featuring six stars arranged within an oval.
But there is an interesting detail behind the logo. The Pleiades contains far more than six stars. So why does Subaru’s emblem show only six?
The answer goes back to the company’s formation and the meaning of the Japanese name itself.
Subaru’s Name Came From Six Companies Coming Together
The automotive company we know today as Subaru emerged from a much larger industrial organization.
After World War II, Japan’s government broke up the Nakajima Aircraft Company, which had been one of Japan’s major aircraft manufacturers. One successor company was Fuji Sangyo, which eventually reorganized into several separate companies.
In 1953, five of those companies combined with Fuji Heavy Industries, creating the corporate structure that would eventually become Subaru Corporation. This history is directly connected to the six-star emblem.
Fuji Heavy Industries chose Subaru as the name for its new automobile brand in the 1950s. The company explains that “Subaru” refers to the Pleiades star cluster and also carries the meaning of “unite” or “gather together.”
That double meaning was particularly appropriate for a company created through the consolidation of six entities.
The Pleiades therefore became more than a poetic reference to the sky. It represented the idea of separate elements becoming one organization.
Subaru introduced its first automobile, the Subaru 1500, in 1954, before the brand’s first mass-production passenger car, the 360, arrived in 1958. The company’s early engineering background was heavily influenced by its aircraft heritage, something that would remain part of Subaru’s identity.
The connection between aviation and Subaru is easy to overlook today because the company is primarily associated with horizontally opposed engines, all-wheel drive, and rally cars. But Fuji Heavy Industries’ aircraft origins influenced the company’s engineering culture and helped distinguish it from many Japanese competitors.
The stars on the logo consequently represent both the celestial meaning of Subaru and the company’s corporate history.
Why Are There Six Stars When the Pleiades Has Many More?
This is probably the most interesting part of the story. The Pleiades is an open star cluster containing hundreds of stars, although only several are readily visible to the naked eye under typical conditions. The cluster is commonly represented in Japanese culture by a group of prominent stars.
Subaru’s logo shows six stars. The largest star represents Fuji Heavy Industries, while the five smaller stars represent the five companies that joined it in forming the new organization, according to Subaru’s corporate history.
The arrangement creates a visual representation of the companies coming together under one parent. There is also a linguistic connection.
The Japanese word “subaru” is associated with the idea of coming together or being united. The same word became the established Japanese name for the Pleiades, a group of stars that appear together in the sky.
That made the name particularly appropriate for Fuji Heavy Industries. The company wasn’t merely choosing a pleasant astronomical reference. It was selecting a name that could simultaneously communicate unity, Japanese identity, and its six-company corporate origin.
That makes the Subaru badge unusually literal. Look at the emblem, and you are essentially looking at a corporate history diagram disguised as a star cluster.
The logo has evolved over the decades, but the six-star concept has remained. Modern Subaru branding uses a stylized blue oval containing the stars, while earlier versions used different shapes and treatments. The fundamental six-star arrangement, however, has remained recognizable.
The Pleiades Connection Fits Subaru Better Than You Might Expect
The astronomical reference also suits Subaru’s Japanese identity. The Pleiades is one of the most recognizable star clusters in the night sky. It can be seen without a telescope and has been observed by civilizations around the world for thousands of years.
In Western astronomy, the cluster is generally called the Pleiades, while its brightest individual stars have names associated with Greek mythology. In Japan, however, Subaru has a much more direct cultural connection.
The cluster is also known as Mutsuraboshi, meaning “six stars,” reflecting the prominent stars traditionally visible to the naked eye. That makes Subaru’s six-star logo particularly clever.
The company essentially combined an established Japanese name for the Pleiades with the historical fact that six companies formed its corporate foundation.
The result wasn’t simply a logo inspired by astronomy. It was a symbol with several layers of meaning. The automobile company eventually became heavily associated with engineering characteristics that made the brand distinctive.
Subaru developed a reputation for horizontally opposed “boxer” engines, which place opposing cylinders on either side of the crankshaft. The layout gives the engine a low center of gravity and has been a defining feature of Subaru passenger vehicles for decades.
The company also developed its symmetrical all-wheel-drive philosophy into one of its most recognizable engineering signatures.
Its motorsport history reinforced that identity. Subaru’s World Rally Championship program, particularly during the 1990s and early 2000s, turned the blue-and-gold Impreza WRX STI into an international performance icon. None of those characteristics is directly related to the stars.
But they helped transform Subaru from an obscure Japanese automaker into a brand with a remarkably strong identity. And that identity begins with its name.
There is another fascinating connection between Subaru and the night sky. The Pleiades is also relatively easy to spot with the naked eye.
On a clear night, it appears as a compact group of bright stars. Under dark skies, observers can see more stars within the cluster than are immediately obvious from a city.
The cluster is located roughly 440 light-years from Earth, according to NASA and other astronomical measurements, meaning the light we see today began its journey toward Earth centuries ago.
That gives the Subaru name an almost timeless quality. The cars bearing the name are modern machines, but the object represented by the name existed long before automobiles, engines, or even modern astronomy.
It also explains why simply calling Subaru’s logo a “six-star logo” misses part of the story. The six stars are not an arbitrary graphic chosen because they looked good on a car. They connect three ideas: the Pleiades, the Japanese meaning of Subaru, and the six companies that created Fuji Heavy Industries’ automotive business.
When Fuji Heavy Industries later adopted Subaru Corporation as its corporate name in 2017, the astronomical identity became even more central to the company rather than disappearing into the history books.
Today, Subaru sells vehicles around the world, and many owners probably recognize the six-star badge without knowing what it represents. Yet the explanation is surprisingly straightforward.
Subaru is named after a star cluster, and its six-star emblem represents both that cluster and the six companies that came together to create the company behind the brand.
That makes the badge one of those rare automotive logos where the name, corporate history, and visual design all essentially tell the same story. The next time you see a Subaru badge, the stars aren’t just decoration. They are the company’s origin story in miniature.
