今井正
Honda returned to work at Toho as an assistant director. In 1946, he worked on two films: Motoyoshi Oda's "Eleven Girl Students" and Kunio Watanabe's "Declaration of Love". In 1947, he worked on three films, "24 Hours in an Underground Market" (jointly directed by Tadashi Imai, Hideo Sekigawa, and Kiyoshi Kusuda) and "The New Age of Fools" Parts One and Two, directed by Kajirō Yamamoto. Due to issues with trade unions and employees at Toho, many left to form Shintoho. Kunio Watanabe tried to convince Honda to join Shintoho, with the promise of Honda becoming a director quicker, however, Honda chose to remain neutral and stayed at Toho. Despite struggling at Toho, Honda worked on a handful of films produced by Film Arts Associates Productions.