Akio Morita

Akio Morita (Japanese盛 田 昭夫; born January 26, 1921 in Tokoname in Japan, † October 3, 1999 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese entrepreneur. Together with Masaru Ibuka, he founded the internationally active Japanese electronics giant Sony.

Family

Morita grew up in a middle-class up in a family that dealt with the Sakeherstellung. After finishing school he studied physics in Osaka. He then went through a training officer in the army and was assigned to a military research project at the age of 23 years. Here he made the acquaintance of Ibuka Masaru, who was in the service of the Imperial Japanese Navy for some time.

His eldest son, Hideo (英 夫) is chairman of the Japan Food & Liquor Alliance and its second Masao (昌 夫) is chairman of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) and senior director at Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan).

Activity

With family support Morita and Masaru founded in 1946, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, the company that developed electronic devices and built. Thus, the first tape recorder for the Japanese market in 1950 was made ​​. The company was interested in a very early stage for the emerging transistor technology. In 1957 came with the TR -63 is one of the most commercially successful transistor radios in the world. In addition to a strategic direction they were looking for a catchy name for the products. Agreement was reached on a combination of American fashion with the Latin vocabulary word sonnyboy sonus ( sound ) to Sony. This was followed by the first fully transistorized television set and a video tape recorder. With the beginning of color television technology, the groundbreaking Trinitron picture tube and Betamax video system was developed, which, however, against the Video Home System (VHS) could not prevail on the market.

His victory came on a portable cassette player with the name Walkman. In cooperation with Philips in the early 1980s they created the technology for the compact disc. 1989 Sony acquired the American film studio and music company Columbia Pictures.

He received on April 21, 1991 Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1st class.

After a stroke from which he never recovered, Akio Morita died on October 3, 1999 in Tokyo. His successor was Norio Oga.