Akio Morita

Akio Morita was born on January 26, 1921, in Nagoya, Japan. His family had been brewing sake, miso, and soy sauce in the village of Kosugaya (now part of Tokoname City) since 1665. As the eldest of four children, he was groomed by his father, Kyuzaemon, to take over the family business. But Morita’s real interests lay in mathematics and physics, and he earned a degree in physics from Osaka Imperial University in 1944. During World War II, he served as a sub-lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Navy, where he met Masaru Ibuka at a study group working on infrared-guided bomb technology.

After the war, in September 1945, Ibuka started a radio repair shop in the bomb-damaged Shirokiya Department Store in Tokyo. Morita read about the venture in a newspaper, got in touch, and decided to join him. With financial backing from Morita’s father, the two co-founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, later Sony) in 1946, with about 20 employees and ¥190,000 in capital. By 1949, the company had developed magnetic recording tape, and in 1950 it sold Japan’s first tape recorder. Ibuka helped secure a license for transistor technology from Bell Labs in the 1950s, allowing Sony to apply transistors to non-military uses early on. In 1957, the company produced the first fully transistorized pocket-sized radio. When the radio was slightly too large to fit in a standard shirt pocket, Morita had his employees wear shirts with bigger pockets to make it appear pocket-sized. In 1958, the company was renamed Sony, blending the Latin word “sonus” (sound) with “sonny,” a common American slang term.

Morita founded Sony Corporation of America in 1960. While there, he noticed how easily employees moved between American companies—a practice unheard of in Japan at the time. Back home, he encouraged experienced, middle-aged workers from other firms to reconsider their careers and join Sony, filling many positions this way and inspiring other Japanese companies to follow suit. In 1961, Sony became the first Japanese company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, using American depositary receipts. In March 1968, Morita set up a joint venture in Japan between Sony and CBS Records, serving as its president, to produce “software” for Sony’s hardware. He became Sony’s president in 1971, taking over from Ibuka. In 1975, Sony released the first Betamax home videocassette recorder, a year before VHS appeared. Ibuka retired in 1976, and Morita became chairman. The Walkman debuted in 1979, one of the first portable music players. In 1982, Sony launched the world’s first compact disc player, the CDP-101, along with the CD format co-developed with Philips. That same year, Sony introduced the 3.5-inch floppy disk, which became the industry standard. In 1984, the Discman line extended the Walkman brand to portable CD players.

Morita pushed Sony to expand aggressively into new fields, driven by a vision of “convergence” that linked film, music, and digital electronics. Twenty years after the CBS Records joint venture, Sony bought CBS Records Group, including Columbia Records, Epic Records, and other CBS labels. In 1989, Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, which owned Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, and others. Norio Ohga—who had joined Sony in the 1950s after writing Morita a letter criticizing the company’s tape recorders—succeeded Morita as CEO in 1989. Morita suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while playing tennis in 1993, and on November 25, 1994, he stepped down as chairman, with Ohga taking over.

Beyond Sony, Morita served as vice chairman of the Japan Business Federation and was a member of the Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group, known as the “Wise Men’s Group.” In 1972, he helped General Motors acquire an interest in Isuzu. He was the third Japanese chairman of the Trilateral Commission. His amateur radio call sign was JP1DPJ.

Morita wrote a 1966 book, *Gakureki Muyō Ron* (*Never Mind School Records*), arguing that school records don’t determine success or business ability. His 1986 autobiography was titled *Made in Japan*. In 1991, he co-authored *The Japan That Can Say No* with politician Shintaro Ishihara, which criticized American business practices and urged Japan to take a more independent role—though Morita later said he hadn’t intended to criticize American practices. The English translation sparked controversy in the U.S., and Morita removed his chapters from later English editions and distanced himself from the book.

Morita received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in 1972. In 1982, he became the first Japanese to receive the Albert Medal from the United Kingdom’s Royal Society of Arts. He died on October 3, 1999.