Akio Morita

Akio Morita (born 1921), along with a few other entrepreneurs, embodied the postwar recovery and growth of Japanese industry. Morita and Sony Corporation, which he cofounded with Masaru Ibuka, challenge conventional notions about Japan's "economic miracle." The energy and inventiveness of small, independent companies like Sony, not keiretsu (industrial conglomerate arrangements) or the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), were the impetus for Japan's postwar economic development; their dependable high technology products changed the image of Japanese exports abroad.

Akio Morita was born January 26, 1921, the first son and fifteenth-generation heir to a sake-brewing family in Kosugaya village near Nagoya. Influenced as a boy by his mother's love of classical music (his family was one of the first to own an RCA Victrola in Japan), Morita developed a keen interest in electronics and sound reproduction. He became so engrossed in his electronic experiments, even building his own ham radio, that he almost flunked out of school; but after concentrating on his studies for a year, he entered the prestigious Eighth Higher School as a physics major. At Osaka Imperial University he assisted his professor in research for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Rather than be drafted, he signed up with the navy to continue his studies. After his graduation in 1944, Lieutenant Morita supervised a special project group of the Aviation Technology Center on thermal guidance weapons and night-vision gunsights. There he met Masaru Ibuka, an electronics engineer 13 years his senior. The two became close friends and eventually cofounded Sony Corporation. After World War II, Morita became a physics professor while working part time in Ibuka's new telecommunications lab.

In March 1946 Morita and Ibuka established Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, or Totsuko, with only $500 capital and roughly 20 employees, in a rented office in a burned-out department store in Tokyo.

To find a niche in a market that would be highly competitive when large prewar electronics manufacturers returned, Ibuka decided to produce completely new consumer products. Sony's most significant development was a high frequency transistor radio that not only established the company's reputation but also revolutionized the consumer electronics industry. The project, however, was launched following a drawn-out approval by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). After Morita reached agreement with Western Electric on the transistor technology in 1953, MITI officials dallied six months before finally remitting the foreign exchange for the licensing fee. Although the relationship between government and industry is one of trust, Morita observed, government often impedes innovative change and developments by excessive intervention and obsolete regulations. By investing six to ten percent of its annual sales in research and development, Sony took the lead in developing new consumer products independently of government help or keiretsu support. A pioneer of products ranging from transistorized radios to solid-state television sets to the Walkman and Discman to VCRs, by 1990 Sony employed more than 100,000 workers and was the world's leading maker of consumer, non-consumer, industrial, and professional electronics and entertainment software.

Morita was a pioneer in marketing as well. His initial failure to sell tape recorders developed in 1950 convinced him that market creation must accompany product development. On his first trip to Europe in 1953, he was deeply impressed and encouraged by the success of N.V. Philips, which had grown from a small light bulb maker in a rural Dutch town into the world's leading electronics maker. Morita then decided to target the world market, particularly the affluent U.S. market, rather than the poor and congested Japanese domestic market. Recognizing the importance of establishing company identity in the world market, Morita adopted "Sony" (finding a Western root from the Latin sonus, meaning "sound," and combining it with the English nickname "Sonny"), a name that foreign customers could easily remember, as his company's trademark in 1955. Totsuko became Sony Corporation in 1958.

In the mid 1950s most Japanese producers relied on giant Japanese trading companies to export their goods, but Morita decided to build his own distribution route in which the message of the new technology and its benefits could be directly passed on to the consumer. In 1960 Morita established Sony Corporation of America and Sony Overseas S.A. (Switzerland) as its sales arms. In 1961 Sony became the first Japanese company to offer its stock in the United States in the form of ADRs (American Depositary Receipts). In February 1960, Sony established the Sony Corporation of America; and in less than two years, they became the first Japanese company to offer its stock in the United States. Sony felt that moving much of its manufacturing and sales to the United States and Europe would only improve its business, something other Japanese companies had yet to discover. Sony subsequently expanded its sales force and production facilities into an international network, with a few hundred subsidiaries and affiliated companies worldwide. Sony acquired CBS Records in 1988 and Columbia Pictures and Tri-Star film studios in 1990 (now Sony Pictures Entertainment) to expand its business in entertainment. Beginning in 1986, in response to changing world market conditions, Sony expanded into the nonconsumer sector, such as broadcasting equipment, semiconductors, video communications, and computers. In 1987, Morita wrote Made In Japan, a historical biography detailing his rise to success that, according to Inc., Stanford graduate school professor Jim Collins recommends to students for best learning from those who have forged the trails.

Morita was often a spokesman for Japanese management. In articulating his own ideas, he emphasized the importance of teamwork and of motivating people by providing challenging work in a family-like environment; engineers in industrial companies particularly need targets for their creativity. Above all, management must treat workers not as tools but as fellow human beings. Morita argued that manufacturing determines the strength of the economy and blamed excessive financial dealings to create paper profits for undermining this base. Morita praised familialism and loyalty to the company as facilitating long-range planning and investment. He often criticized American management's preoccupation with quarterly profits and dividends and its tendency to postpone investment in equipment.

Morita was also outspoken on U.S.-Japanese relations. He warned, for example, against "hollowing out" the economy in the United States by moving manufacturing plants overseas to exploit cheap labor. In 1989 an unauthorized translation of A Japan That Can Say "No", a book based on conversations between Morita and Shintaro Ishihara, Liberal Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives in Japan, caused a stir in the United States. Although most of the controversial statements were credited to Ishihara, some critics blamed Morita for his arrogance. Morita, however, praised the openness of American markets and, in his efforts to reciprocate it, established in 1972 the Sony Trading Company, whose mission is to promote U.S. exports to Japan.

Morita became executive vice-president of Sony Corporation in 1959, president in 1971, chairman and chief executive officer in 1976. In 1972, Sony was awarded an Emmy by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for the development of Trinitron—the first time an Emmy had been given for a product. In 1976, with Morita as CEO, Sony received another Emmy for the U-Matic video tape recording system. Sony's third Emmy was awarded for their one-inch helical-scan videotape recording; and it's fourth came in 1984, for a new video recorder with mass image storage capability specially suited for computer graphics. In 1985, Billboard gave Sony its Trendsetter Award for their revolutionary small D-5 compact disc player. Morita, himself, received the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts "for outstanding contributions to technological and industrial innovation and management, industrial design, industrial relations and video systems, and the growth of trade relations." Morita became chairman of the board in 1989. As vice-chairman of Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations) and chairman of the Council for Better Corporate Citizenship within Keidanren, Morita was active in educating Japanese companies abroad to become good citizens of local communities. He addressed a letter to the G-7 leaders meeting in Tokyo—the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, and Canada—encouraging them to seek ways to lower all economic barriers between North America, Europe, and Japan to forge a new world economic order.

On November 30, 1993 at the age of 72, Morita suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Sony, struggling at that time due to a decrease in profits, now had to worry about whether Noria Ohga, Morita's handpicked successor and president/chief executive officer as well as the chair of Sony Software Corporation and Sony Corporation of America, would be able to fill Morita's shoes. Ohga has been blamed for a $3.2 billion loss in Sony Pictures Entertainment's performance. Besides the Sony Corporation's concerns, much of Japan worried about what the loss of Morita from the helm would mean for the country. Jolie Solomon and Peter McKillop wrote in Newsweek that Morita is seen as "the epitome of the transnational executive," or, as General Electric chairman Jack Welch calls him, "spiritually global." After years as a maverick who was more beloved abroad than at home, Morita has lately been acknowledged even in Japan as the country's "most powerful and persuasive voice"

In recognition of "his distinguished corporate leadership and for a lifetime of innovative contributions in bringing advanced technologies to consumer electronics products," The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) presented Akio Morita with its Founders Medal less than a year after his stroke. The award was accepted by his wife and one of his sons, as Morita was still in recovery stages. On November 25, 1994, three months after being honored by IEEE and almost exactly a year after his stroke, Morita decided it was time to step down as chair of Sony, still debilitated from his brain hemorrhage. His resignation secured the Sony position for Noria Ohga, who still intended to retain his other Sony responsibilities.

Morita took over from Masaru Ubuka as honorary chair of Sony, Billboard reported, as well as being formally recognized as founder of the corporation. Ibuka was named founder in 1990 and will continue in that role and has also been named chief advisor. Steve McClure noted in his Billboard article that in Japan, such titles (which indicate the friends' joint role in starting Sony) are often awarded to executives who have essentially retired from their companies.

Morita's 1993 stroke left him partially paralyzed. He left for his Hawaii condominium in the fall of 1994 to recuperate. Fortune magazine reported that although his spirits were good and his mind lucid, he often had trouble speaking and moving. Part of his therapy involved his speaking in Japanese and English on alternate days. Morita gave up his honorary chair position, but is still considered "Sony's patriarch," Brent Schlender and Cindy Kano said in Fortune, still maintaining contact with his Japanese protegés by phone and fax. Sony executives make stops in Hawaii to see Morita on trips between Japan and the United States. His power and influence are still prominent factors in Sony's efforts. When Ohga reached his 65th birthday, an age at which he and Morita had previously decided was when one should relinquish the presidency of Sony, he met with Morita to get approval for appointing Nobuyuki Idei— someone with no engineering experience, unlike the usually Sony régime—as the next commander-in-chief. Idei, who began work with Sony in 1960, caught Morita's attention early on. He spent over ten years in Europe where he founded Sony's French subsidiary. When he returned to Japan, he was made general manager of Sony's audio division in 1979, where he was in charge of marketing such products as the Walkman and helped Ohga promote the audio CD. In the 80s, he ran Sony's home-stereo component group, and the video group when he helped with the promotion of the 8mm camcorder. By 1990, Idei had secured Ohga's former position of director of Sony's Design Center and was responsible for Sony's merchandising and product promotion. In 1993, he took over corporate communications, making Idei Sony's most visible senior executive. In many ways, Schlender and Kano reported, Idei had more direct involvement in much of Sony's business than anyone else with the company. Believing that Idei's marketing experience, his resourcefulness, and his enthusiasm for technological advancement, Morita agreed that Ohga's selection was appropriate.

Akio Morita was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Williams College and various medals of honor in Japan, Great Britain, France, West Germany, Austria, and Brazil, among others. In 1995, he was presented with the Japan Society Award for outstanding contributions to better United States-Japan understanding.

Throughout his career Morita remained an avid sportsman. He played golf for over 40 years. At age 55 he took up tennis; at 60, downhill skiing; at 64 he resumed water skiing; and at 68, scuba diving. Morita and his wife, Yoshiko, have two sons and a daughter.

Further Reading

The most comprehensive biographical account is Akio Morita, Edwin M. Reingold, and Mitsuko Shomomura, Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony (1986). For information about his life and thoughts, see Akio Morita, Gakureki muyo-ron (Never Mind School Records) (Tokyo: 1987); Akio Morita and Shintaro Ishihara, No to ieru Nippon (A Japan That Can Say "No") (Tokyo: 1989); Akio Morita, "When Sony Was an Upand-Comer," Forbes (October 6, 1986); Akio Morita, "Technological Management Will Be the Key to Success," Research Management (March/April 1987). On history of the Sony Corporation, see Genryu: Sony 40th Anniversary (Tokyo: 1986) and its English translation, Genryu: Sony Challenges 1946-1986. Also see: Larry Armstrong, "Sony's Challenge," Business Week (Industrial/Technology Edition) (June 1, 1987); and Yoko Konaga, "Sony Corp.: New Fields, New Strategies," Tokyo Business Today (June 1989); "What am I in for?" Inc. (July 1992); Akito Morita, "Toward a New World Economic Order," Atlantic Monthly (June 1993); Jolie Solomon and Peter McKillop," We Have Lost a Very Important Player,"' Newsweek (December 13, 1993); William Livingstone and Bob Ankosko, "Awards and Prizes," Stereo Review (August 1994); "Akio Morita," US News and World Report (December 5, 1994); Steve McClure, "Ohga Now Stands Alone Atop Sony Corp.," Billboard (December 17, 1994); Brent Schlender and Cindy Kano, "Sony On the Brink," Fortune (June 12, 1995); and Bob Ankosko and William Livingstone, "Morita Honored," Stereo Review (January 1996). Online information may be obtained via http://www.digitalcentury.com/encyclo/update/sony. □

Morita, Akio

(1921-)
Sony Corporation

Overview

As cofounder and chairman of the Sony Corporation, Akio Morita became one of the most influential businessmen in the world. He introduced consumers to innovative products including the hand-held transistor radio, the video cassette recorder (VCR), the Walkman portable audio cassette player, and the Diskman portable compact disk player. At the same time, he helped establish Japan's reputation as a source of high quality products.

Personal Life

Akio Morita was born on January 26, 1921, the first son of Kyusaemon and Shuko Morita, in the small village of Kosugaya near Nagoya, Japan. If he had followed the traditional family occupation, he would have been the fifteenth-generation heir to his family's sake brewing business. Influenced by his mother's love for classical music, he became interested in electronics and sound reproduction while listening to her RCA Victrola record player. Morita became so interested in electronics that he built his own ham radio and almost flunked out of school due to his disinterest in anything but electronics. After returning diligently to his studies for a year, he entered the very prestigious Eighth Higher School as a physics major.

Rather than be drafted at the beginning of World War II, Morita entered Osaka Imperial University, agreeing to serve in the navy following his graduation. At the university, he assisted his professors in research for the Japanese Imperial Navy. In 1944, Morita earned a degree in physics and was immediately commissioned as a lieutenant in the engineering corps for the Japanese Imperial Navy.

While in the navy, he conducted research at the Aviation Technology Center into thermal guided weapons and night-vision gunsights. There he met Masura Ibuka, an electronics engineer that was 13 years his senior. They became good friends and would eventually co-found Sony Corporation. Morita married Yoshiko Kamei on May 13, 1950; they had three children: Hideo, Masao, and Naoko.

In 1987, Morita wrote Made In Japan, a historical biography that was considered to be one of the greatest resources for students considering a career in business. Two years later, he co-authored The Japan That Can Say "NO," a book that drew a great deal of criticism in the United States. In addition to commenting on the quality of American products, Morita also criticized the U.S. education system and what he saw as the short-term focus of U.S. business practices. Right-wing politician and coauthor Shintaro Ishihara contributed more extreme, nationalistic chapters to the book, which suggested that Japan should not make any concessions to American demands for a balanced trade relationship. Morita distanced himself from this position in magazine articles written for publications such as The Atlantic Monthly. He asserted that he did not support Ishihara's position; rather, he sought the deregulation of the Japanese economy.

In November 1994, a year after Morita had surgery for a cerebral hemorrhage, he retired as CEO of Sony. His retirement had been anticipated, and his hand-picked successor, Noria Ohga, took over leadership of the company. Morita was now physically impaired and confined to a wheelchair. He was subsequently named honorary chairman, replacing co-founder Ibuka, who took the title of chief advisor to Sony Corporation unitl his death in 1997.

Career Details

Following World War II, Morita worked as a physics professor until, in 1946, he borrowed money from his father to start a new business with Ibuka. With $500, they created Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunication Engineering Corporation), with 20 employees sharing a rented office in a burned-out Tokyo department store.

The company's first products included manufacturing amplifiers, vacuum-tube voltmeters, and communications devices for the Japan Post Office and the Japan Broadcasting Company. Their first product aimed at the consumer market was a bulky $500 tape recorder that failed to attract much interest and was sold to schools instead. In 1947, the company had grown marginally and moved its 50 employees into some former army barracks on the outskirts of Tokyo. In 1953, Morita bought the rights to the transistor, a miniaturized electronic circuit which had been developed by an American company, Bell Laboratories, and whose patent was owned by another American company, Western Electric.

Transistors were initially thought to be impractical for most consumer products with the exception of hearing aids. But, Morita's purchase of the patent would prove to be a watershed for his company. His company would go on to produce many firsts: the AM transistor radio (1955); the pocket-sized transistor radio (1957); the two-band transistor radio (1957); the FM transistor radio (1958); the all-transistorized television set (1959); the alltransistorized video tape recorder (1960); and the small-screen transistorized television set (1961).

In 1958, the Tokyo Telecommunication Engineering Corporation changed its name to the Sony Corporation, and Morita moved to New York City to set up an office for operations in the United States. Five years later, Sony became the first foreign-owned business to offer stock for sale in the United States and, in 1970, it became the first Japanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sony Corporation continued to introduce new inventions: the first home video tape recorder priced within reach of most consumers (1965); a color video tape recorder (1966); the first integrated circuit radio (1966); its own tape for color video recording (1967); the first seven-inch color television set (1967); and a portable, battery-operated video tape recorder and camera (1967).

Morita went on to become executive vice-president, president, chairman, and, finally, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sony. His last major decision on behalf of Sony was the purchase of CBS Records and Columbia Pictures Entertainment (which became Sony Pictures Entertainment) in the late 1980s.

Social and Economic Impact

While Morita credited his partner Masura Ibuka as being Sony's technical genius, Morita served as the company's more visible spokesperson and promoter. He created the name "Sony" (easy to remember and say), and later replaced model numbers with the equally catchy product names Walkman, Handycam, and Watchman. It was Morita who learned English and traveled the world unveiling Sony prototypes, and it is he who has become most closely identified with the company.

In his starring role, Morita introduced an astounding number of innovative products. Speaking in Fortune, Morita explained, "Our basic concept has always been...to give new convenience, or new methods, or new benefits, to the general public with our technology." Following this guideline, Sony engineers developed electronic devices that were revolutionary at the time of their inception and are accepted as must-have products today: the hand-held transistor radio, the battery-powered television, the VCR, the camcorder, the compact disk player, and the Walkman portable cassette player. The Walkman and the Trinitron television set have been Sony's greatest successes; the Trinitron's exceptional picture quality garnered it an Emmy Award in 1972.

Morita not only shared responsibility for creating perhaps the most inventive electronics company in the world, but he also led the way in establishing Japan's reputation as a source of high quality products. He recalled an earlier time in New Scientist: "When I made my first trip to Europe in 1953 I couldn't see any Japanese industrial products being exported to Europe. 'Made in Japan' was regarded as meaning very cheap, poor quality. When we started up our exports...we had to put, 'Made in Japan' on them. We were ashamed so we made the label as small as possible." Ironically, Morita later found that when his company began building factories outside of Japan that customers expressed a preference for Sony products with the Japanese label.

The Sony reputation for excellence and Morita's active participation in the debate over economic policy combined to make him one of the most notable businessmen of his time. Writing for the New York Times, James Sterngold noted, "[Morita's retirement] is a milestone in the business history of Japan and the West . . . [marking] the end of a career that symbolized Japan's transformation from a low-cost industrial imitator into a highly competitive global innovator. Along the way, Mr. Morita became Japan's most influential business diplomat." But for his illness, Morita would have become the chairman of Keidanren, the most powerful business lobby in Japan.

Chronology: Akio Morita

1921: Born.

1944: Earned degree in physics at Osaka Imperial University.

1946: Cofounded Tokyo Telecommunication Engineering Corporation.

1953: Bought rights to the transistor.

1958: Changed company's name to Sony Corporation.

1960: Set up American office for Sony.

1972: Sony awarded an Emmy for Trinitron television set.

1982: Awarded Medal of Honor with Blue Ribbon, Royal Society of Arts Albert Medal.

1984: Awarded Legion d'Honneur, Government of France.

1987: Wrote Made In Japan.

1989: Co-authored The Japan That Can Say "NO."

1991: Awarded First Class Order of Sacred Treasure, His Majesty the Emperor of Japan.

1992: Awarded Honorary Knight Commander of Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

1994: Resigned as CEO of Sony.

Described in New Scientist as having an "un-Japanese frankness," Morita was outspoken at home and abroad regarding trade issues. Unlike most other Japanese business leaders, he admitted that Japan's economy was essentially closed and expressed the opinion that his country's policies should be changed. At the same time, however, he criticized the quality of some American products and charged that this was also an important factor in the Japanese trade surplus in the United States.

Sources of Information

Contact at: Sony Corporation
Sony Corporation
7-35 Kitashinagawa 6-chome
Tokyo, 141 Japan
Business Phone:
URL: http://www.world.sony.com

Bibliography

Fox, Barry. "A Godhead of Japanese Electronics." New Scientist, 11 July 1992.

"IEEE Founders Medal to Sony Chairman." Electronics Now, 1 October 1994.

Jensen, Holger, and Kevin Sullivan. "Superiority Complex." Maclean's, 11 December 1989.

McClure, Steve. "Ohga Now Stands Alone Atop Sony Corp.?" Billboard, 17 December 1994.

Schlender, Brenton R. "How Sony Keeps the Magic Going." Fortune, 24 February 1992.

Sterngold, James. "Sony's Pioneering Chairman Gives Up the Reins." New York Times, 26 November 1994.

Sykes, Trevor. "The Century's Top 10 Tycoons." World Press Review, February 1996.

MORITA, AKIO

Akio Morita (1921–), as a co-founder and later chairman of the Sony Corporation, gave to the general public a revolutionary array of inventive electronic products during the last half of the twentieth century. Worldwide, he introduced consumers to products like the hand-held transistor radio, the video cassette recorder (VCR), the Walkman portable cassette player, and the Diskman portable CD disk player. He not only became one of the most influential businessmen in the world, he also helped to establish Japan's reputation after World War II (1939–1945) as a source for high quality, innovative, and reliable products.

Morita was born in 1921, the first son of Kyusaemon and Shuko Morita, in the small Japanese village of Kosugaya. If Morita had followed in the traditional family occupation of his father and his ancestors, he would have been the fifteenth generation heir to his family's 300 year-old sake brewing business, manufacturing an alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice and widely used by the Japanese.

The young Morita, however, was not interested in the family business. He instead developed a passion for improving electronics and sound reproduction. Presumably he was influenced early in his life by his mother's love for Western classical music, which she imported into the household with American-made RCA Victrola records. Recordings were then made out of heavy, clumsy, and easily-broken 12-inch diameter discs, imprinted with fine grooves that had to be tracked by a tiny needle as the discs revolved at 78 revolutions per minute. The sound quality was crude, and the music was often mixed with the sounds of scratches which inevitably accumulated on the discs after use.

Morita became so interested in new electronics, and with improving the qualities of sound, that he almost flunked out of school because of his disinterest in anything other than electronics. His family convinced him to persist in his studies, and he later entered the prestigious Eighth Higher School as a physics major.

Rather than be drafted into World War II (1939–1945), Morita entered Osaka Imperial University, agreeing to serve in the navy after graduation. In 1944 he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the engineering corps of the Japanese Imperial Navy. He worked on projects involving guided weapons and night-vision gun sights. There he met with Masura Ibuka, a brilliant electronics engineer 13 years his senior. They became best friends and together eventually co-founded Sony Corporation.

After World War II, Morita and Ibuka created the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation with only $500. Begun with 20 employees and a shared rented office in a burned-out Tokyo department store, the company made electronic equipment—amplifiers, voltage-measuring devices, and communication devices—for the Japanese Post Office. It was the beginning of an electronics revolution, and an electronics empire.

The business grew slowly, but in 1953, Morita decided to buy the rights to the transistor, a miniature electronics circuit that had been developed by the American company Bell Laboratories. The patent was owned by another American company, Western Electric. At that time, transistors were thought to be impractical for most consumer products, except for use in hearing aids. Morita's purchase of the patent would prove to be the basis for a revolution in modern consumer electronics. With this patent, Morita and Ibuka began to use the transistor in ways that transformed the world of electronics, sound, and television. Within two years, the partners created for commercial consumer use the AM transistor radio. In another two years, they began to produce the pocket-sized transistor radio, the AM-FM transistor radio, the first all-transistor television set, the all-transistor video tape recorder, and the small-screen portable battery-operated television set.

In 1958 Morita changed his company's name to Sony Corporation, because it was easy to pronounce, and Morita himself moved to New York City to set up an office for United States operations. Sony became the first foreign-owned business to offer stock for sale in the United States; in 1970, Sony became the first Japanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

During the 1960s and 1970s the Sony Corporation continued to introduce to the public several new transistorized inventions: the first inexpensively priced home video recorder, the color video tape recorder, video tape for color video recording, and the first battery-operated portable video recorder and camera. All of these inventions came to the marketplace produced with extremely high quality. Morita's business helped changed the reputation of Japanese businesses for making cheap, poor-quality consumer items. The Sony brand name stood for the creation of transistorized innovations of all kinds, for high quality, and for reliable consumer products. Morita felt he had, among other things, taken the shame out of the label "Made in Japan."

Morita had indeed realized his childhood dream to improve the quality of sound reproduction. The use of CD digital technology eliminated the old-fashioned records his mother used and replaced the scratchy-sounding vinyl discs with a CD technology that reproduced sound almost flawlessly. The Sony Corporation, with Morita's genius for innovation and selling, created an entirely new electronics environment during the last half of the twentieth century.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Morita wrote two books dealing with careers in business and international business trade: Made in Japan (1986) and The Japan That Can Say No (1991). In 1994, Morita retired from the Sony Corporation at age 73, after suffering a debilitating stroke which had confined him to a wheel chair.

See also: Sony Corporation

FURTHER READING

Ishihara, Shintaru, and Akio Morita. The Japan That Can Say No. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.

Johnstone, Bob. We Were Burning: Japanese Entrepreneurs and the Electronic Age. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

Lyons, Nick. The Sony Vision. New York: Crown Pub., 1976.

Morita, Akio, and Edwin M. Reingold, and Mitsuko Shimomura. Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony. New York: Dutton, 1986.