# SoftBank Mobile new logo (2006)

> SoftBank Mobile launched a new logo in Oct 2006. Oct 2006: Vodafone K.K. red speechmark replaced by SoftBank name with silver two-bar mark.

## Key facts

- Brand: SoftBank Mobile
- Launched: Oct 2006
- What changed: Oct 2006: Vodafone K.K. red speechmark replaced by SoftBank name with silver two-bar mark.
- Why: SoftBank said adopting its own core brand showed its commitment to mobile as a main business and would let the group maximise synergy.
- Industry: Telecom
- Logos: https://rebrandlog.com/logos/softbank-mobile-2006/before.svg (before), https://rebrandlog.com/logos/softbank-mobile-2006/after.svg (after)

## The rebrand, explained

Vodafone's adventure in Japan ended with a name change. In May 2006 SoftBank announced that its subsidiary Vodafone K.K. would become SoftBank Mobile on 1 October. The brand name would switch from Vodafone to SoftBank, and the corporate logo would move entirely to the design used across the SoftBank group. Around 1,856 Vodafone shops and every customer touch point, from product and service names to their design, would be changed over in time for the date.

Masayoshi Son, president of both SoftBank and the mobile company, explained the choice to reporters, as ITmedia reported. SoftBank was the group's core brand, he said, and using it made clear the group was committing to mobile as its main business. The SoftBank name had also become better known, and a single brand would help the group get synergy across its businesses. The official release framed it as making the carrier, in name and reality, a member of SoftBank's comprehensive digital information group, working toward what the group called a digital information revolution.

The process was more open than the result suggests. Son said he had agonised over the decision. The team listed around 2,000 candidate names and ran surveys inside and outside the company, with entirely new names competing on equal terms against SoftBank through preliminaries, semi finals and a final. SoftBank won. He would not reveal the runners up, but joked that online suggestions had included puns on his own name combined with Vodafone, and that the real candidates were more serious than that.

For a design critic, this is less a logo story than a portfolio decision. Choosing the parent name over a fresh consumer brand is the classic masterbrand move: it trades the chance of a warmer, purpose built mobile identity for scale, recognition and a clear signal of commitment. Putting the group's name and reputation on every shop sign was a loud statement of intent. The plain group logo was never going to be the selling point; the name, and what SoftBank would do with it, was.

In short: Vodafone out, the parent's name on every shop.

## Sources

- https://group.softbank/news/press/20060518
- https://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/article/0605/18/1060518041/
- https://www.itmedia.co.jp/bizmobile/articles/0608/18/news101.html

## Cite this

Rebrand Log, "SoftBank Mobile new logo (2006)", https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/softbank-mobile-2006/, last updated 2026-10-21.