Akio Morita

Akio Morita was born on January 26, 1921, in Nagoya, Japan, as the eldest son in a prominent family that had brewed sake and soy sauce for over 300 years across 14-15 generations. Expected to inherit the family business, Morita instead pursued his passion for electronics, studying physics at Osaka Imperial University, from which he graduated. During World War II, he served in the Japanese Navy as a lieutenant, working on weapon development and submarine electronics, experiences that honed his technical skills. Post-war, in 1945, Morita read about engineer Masaru Ibuka's radio repair shop in bombed-out Tokyo and joined him, securing funding from his father to formally establish Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, later Sony) in May 1946 with 20 employees and ¥190,000 capital. Facing shortages, they sourced materials on the black market and focused on high-quality innovations, licensing transistor technology from Bell Labs in the 1950s to produce Japan's first pocket-sized transistor radio (TR-55) in 1955, which revolutionized portable electronics. Morita handled business strategy, emphasizing branding—insisting 'Sony' appear prominently on products—and rejecting private labeling for others. In 1960, Morita founded Sony Corporation of America, relocating his family there to build direct sales channels and understand Western markets, leading to Sony's 1961 NYSE listing as the first Japanese firm via ADRs. He became Sony president in 1971, succeeding Ibuka, and drove diversification: a 1968 CBS/Sony joint venture for music, Betamax VCR in 1975, and the iconic Walkman in 1979, which sold over 400 million units despite internal opposition. Morita authored 'Made in Japan' (1986), sharing philosophies on innovation without market research and long-term vision, influencing figures like Steve Jobs. He retired as chairman in 1994 after a stroke but remained influential until his death on October 3, 1999, from a cerebral hemorrhage.