Sony

Sony Group Corporation, commonly called Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate based in Minato, Tokyo, at the Sony City building. Its operations span electronics, imaging and sensing through Sony Semiconductor Solutions, film and television via Sony Pictures Entertainment, music under Sony Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment Japan, and video games with Sony Interactive Entertainment, among other areas.

The company was founded in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, originally under a different name. It adopted the name Sony in 1958. Starting as an electronics firm, it earned early acclaim for products like the TR-55 transistor radio and the CV-2000 home video tape recorder, playing a notable role in Japan’s post-war economic recovery. After Ibuka retired in the 1970s, Morita served as chairman until 1994, guiding Sony’s emergence as a global brand known for consumer electronics innovation. Key products included the Trinitron color television, the Walkman portable audio player, and the co-developed compact disc.

Moving beyond electronics, Sony bought CBS Records in 1988 and Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1989. It entered the home video game console market with the PlayStation in 1994. In Japan, it set up a financial services division in 2001, which was spun off into a separate company in September 2025, with Sony retaining a 20% stake. In 2021, the company was renamed Sony Group Corporation as it shifted to a holding company structure, while its electronics business continued as Sony Corporation.

By 2020, Sony held a 55% share of the global image sensor market, making it the largest image sensor manufacturer, the second largest camera maker, a semiconductor sales leader, and the world’s third-largest television producer by sales.

Though not part of a traditional keiretsu, Sony has historical ties to the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, dating to the 1950s when it relied solely on Mitsui Bank for financing. It is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, a component of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX Core30 indices, and has American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange, listed there since 1961. As of 2021, it ranked 88th on the Fortune Global 500 and 57th on the 2023 Forbes Global 2000 list.

Sony’s origins trace to the aftermath of World War II. In 1946, Masaru Ibuka opened an electronics shop in a department store in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi area, with ¥190,000 in capital and eight employees. On 7 May 1946, Akio Morita joined him to establish a company under a different name. That company built Japan’s first tape recorder, the Type-G. The name changed to Sony in 1958.

Founders Morita and Ibuka knew that to succeed globally, they needed a short, easy brand name. They considered using their initials, TTK, but rejected it because the railway company Tokyo Kyuko already used those letters. In Japan, they sometimes used the acronym “Totsuko,” but Morita found Americans struggled to pronounce it. Another early attempt, “Tokyo Teletech,” was dropped when Morita learned an American firm already used Teletech. The name “Sony” combined the Latin “sonus,” meaning sound, and “sonny,” a 1950s American slang term for a young boy. In Japan at the time, “sonny boys” was a loanword implying smart, presentable young men, which Morita and Ibuka felt described themselves. The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, came out in 1955, but the company name officially changed to Sony in January 1958. Using Roman letters instead of kanji was unusual for a Japanese company then, and Mitsui, Sony’s main bank, opposed it, pushing for names like Sony Electronic Industries or Sony Teletech. Morita insisted, not wanting the name tied to any specific industry, and eventually Ibuka and Mitsui’s chairman agreed.

Sony’s TR-63 radio, according to one account, “cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics.” By the mid-1950s, American teens were buying portable transistor radios in large numbers, pushing the industry from about 100,000 units in 1955 to 5 million by 1968. Co-founder Akio Morita established Sony Corporation of America in 1960. He noticed how freely employees moved between American companies, unlike in Japan, and upon returning, encouraged experienced, middle-aged workers from other firms to join Sony. This practice filled many roles and inspired other Japanese companies. Sony also helped shape Japan as a major exporter in the 1960s–1980s, supplying bomb parts to the U.S. Military for the Vietnam War. It improved American views of “made in Japan” products, and known for quality, Sony charged above-market prices for its electronics and resisted cutting them.