The airbag was invented in 1963 by the Japanese Yasusaburo Kobori as a passenger protection device for aircraft. Later, in 1967, the American company Eaton came up with the idea of using the airbag as a passenger protection device for automobiles. First adopted as an option by General Motors Corporation (GM) in the U.S. in 1973, the first application in Japan was in the driver's seat of the Honda Legend in 1985. The airbag was initially adopted as a device to protect the driver not wearing seatbelts, and its installation later expanded from not only the driver’s seat, but to the passenger seat as well.

  Airbags, when used in conjunction with seatbelts, provide greater occupant protection, and thus are being adopted not only in the U.S. market, but also in Europe and Japan. Airbags are now standard equipment on most models in the major industrialized countries of Japan, the U.S., and Europe.

  With the rate of airbag installation expected to increase in emerging countries as well, it is widely predicted that the global airbag market will continue to expand. As for the market size, some predict that it will expand by a factor of 1.7 during the nine years starting from 2021.

  In India, all passenger cars produced from July 2019 onward will be required to be equipped with driver-side airbags, and all passenger cars produced from January 2022 onward will be required to be equipped with passenger-side airbags. Other countries and regions around the world, including emerging countries, are pushing for the installation of such equipment. (In India, a bill had been submitted that would make it mandatory for passenger cars to be equipped with a total of six airbags, including side airbags and curtain airbags, from October 2023 onwards. However, the mandatory requirement has been withdrawn for now.)