Morita Akio

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Morita Akio

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 Ibuka Masaru , he founded the international Japanese electronics company Sony .

family

Morita grew up in a middle-class family in a family that was involved in sake production. After finishing school he studied physics in Osaka . He then went through officer training in the army and was assigned to a military research project at the age of 23. Here he made the acquaintance of Masura Ibuka, who had been 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 his second son Masao (昌 夫) is chairman of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) and executive director of Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) .

activity

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

A portable cassette player called the Walkman began its triumphant advance . In cooperation with Philips , the technology for the compact disc was created in the early 1980s . In 1989 Sony acquired the American film studio and music company Columbia Pictures .

Morita received the Order of the Holy Treasure , 1st class on April 21, 1991 . In 1992 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society and in 1993 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Akio Morita died on October 3, 1999 in Tokyo after a stroke from which he did not recover. He was succeeded by Norio Ōga .

literature

  • Akio Morita, Edwin M. Reingold, Mitsuko Shimomura: Made in Japan. A world career . Droemer Knaur, 1988, ISBN 3-426-03876-5 (autobiography).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 旧 ・ 勲 一等 瑞宝 章 受 章 者 一 覧 (戦 後 の 部) . The Nakano Library, accessed February 20, 2012 (Japanese).
  2. ^ Member History: Akio Morita. American Philosophical Society, accessed February 4, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Akio, Morita
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 盛 田 昭夫 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokoname
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 1999
PLACE OF DEATH Tokyo