Short answer
What the Subaru logo symbol means
The stars in the Subaru logo are the Pleiades, a star cluster that Japanese calls Subaru. The cluster is traditionally the Seven Sisters, but one is said to be invisible, so the logo shows six. The stars also allude to the five companies that merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries in 1953, the parent of Subaru, with a larger star usually read as the new parent company.
Quick read
Subaru logo at a glance
- Symbol
- Six stars of the Pleiades
- Name
- Subaru, the Japanese name of the Pleiades (M45)
- Name chosen by
- Kenji Kita, first head of Fuji Heavy Industries
- Parent company formed
- 15 July 1953, from five companies
- Worldwide corporate symbol
- 2003
- Colors
- Blue oval, silver stars, gray wordmark
Interactive logo decoder
The Subaru Six-Star Badge
The oval
A silver-rimmed blue oval encloses the stars. It frames the cluster as a single compact badge for grilles, hoods and steering wheels. This describes the visible design, not a documented intent.
Highlighted on the logoThe large star
The biggest of the six four-pointed stars sits at the upper left with long horizontal and vertical points. Subaru-related sources do not publish a firm meaning for it, though it is often read as the lead star of the group.
Highlighted on the logoThe five smaller stars
Five smaller stars trail to the right and lower down in a loose cluster. Together with the large star they make the six stars of the Pleiades as seen in Japan, where the cluster is called Subaru.
Highlighted on the logoThe SUBARU wordmark
The name is set in heavy, wide capital letters in dark gray below the oval. The badge and the name appear together in the corporate logo used since the early 2000s.
Highlighted on the logoLogo palette
Subaru logo colors
Select a swatch to copy its HEX value. Values reference archived artwork unless official guidelines are cited.
#024F9DThe blue field of the oval behind the stars, sampled from the archived logo file.
The Pleiades star cluster and the Subaru name
Subaru is not a made-up word. It is the Japanese name for the Pleiades, the cluster also known as M45 in the constellation Taurus. Kenji Kita, the first head of Fuji Heavy Industries, wanted a Japanese name for the company's first car project and chose it. The badge simply shows the cluster. The image above compares an older gold Subaru emblem with a photograph of the Pleiades, and the star arrangement is easy to see.
Why does the Subaru logo have six stars, not seven?
The Pleiades are traditionally called the Seven Sisters, and tradition says that one of them is invisible, so only six are normally seen. The Subaru badge follows the six. An early logo on the 360, the small car that became Subaru's first mass-produced model in 1958, already used a similar arrangement of six four-pointed stars.
Five companies and one big star in the Subaru logo
Fuji Heavy Industries was formed on 15 July 1953 by merging five Japanese companies, which trace back to the aircraft maker Nakajima. Wikipedia says the name and logo also allude to this merger. Subaru's own European magazine says the six stars reflect a company formed with capital from five firms.
The common extra step is that the large star stands for the parent company and the five small ones for the five firms. That reading is widespread, but the sources we used do not confirm which star stands for which company, and we found no designer credited for the badge. Treat the one-big-five-small reading as interpretation. Counts also vary on the web, with some sites saying six companies merged.
Subaru logo history, from chrome stars to the blue oval
The earliest archived badge, from 1953, is a chrome oval with stars scattered across it. A gold version with the stars linked by thin lines followed in 1958, and a red enamel version in 1959. In 1980 the stars settled into a compact group, with one large star and five small ones. Around 2000 the oval turned blue and the SUBARU name moved below it in heavy capitals, and in 2003 the company adopted the logo as its worldwide corporate symbol. The current badge, from 2019, keeps the blue oval with a brighter blue and a lighter gray wordmark. The blue of the oval is a design choice that Subaru has not explained, though the sky-and-stars look is obvious.
Logo archive
Subaru logo versions through the years
1953 Chrome oval with scattered stars 
1958 The gold version 
1980 Outlined stars 
2000 Blue oval with wordmark 
2003 Corporate symbol - 2019 Current logo
Frequently asked questions
Subaru logo symbol questions answered
What do the stars in the Subaru logo mean?
They represent the Pleiades star cluster, which Japanese calls Subaru. They also allude to the five companies that merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries in 1953.
Why does the Subaru logo have six stars?
The Pleiades are traditionally the Seven Sisters, but one is said to be invisible, so six are visible. The logo shows six.
Does each star in the Subaru logo stand for a company?
The big star is commonly read as the parent company and the five small stars as the five companies that merged. The sources we used do not confirm which star is which, so it is interpretation.
What does Subaru mean in Japanese?
It is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. Kenji Kita, the first head of Fuji Heavy Industries, chose it for the company's car project.
Why is the Subaru logo blue?
Subaru has not published a reason. The blue oval with silver stars appeared around 2000 and resembles the cluster against the night sky, but that is a reading, not a statement.
Keep reading
More logo meanings
References
Sources for the Subaru logo story
- Wikipedia — Subaru
- Wikipedia — Subaru Corporation
- Wikipedia — Pleiades
- Wikipedia — Chikuhei Nakajima
- Wikipedia — Subaru 360
- Subaru Europe magazine — Subaru fun facts
Subaru logo and history. Logo images are an educational reference archive.