From TheBestLinks.com
Akio Morita (盛田 昭夫 Morita Akio; 1921–1999) was the co-founder of Sony Corporation.
Morita was an officer in the Japanese navy during World War II, and was trained as a physicist and scientist. His family was involved in sake production. He met Masaru Ibuka in the Wartime Research Committee, and they founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, later Sony) on May 7, 1946, with approximately 20 employees and initial capital of 190,000 yen. Ibuka was 38 years old at the time, and Morita was 25.
In 1949 the company developed magnetic recording tape and in 1950 sold the first tape recorder in Japan. In 1957 it produced a pocket-sized radio and a year later renamed itself Sony (sonus is Latin for sound). In 1960 it produced the first transistor television in the world.
In 1961 Sony Corporation of America was the first Japanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1989 Sony bought Columbia Pictures.
On November 25, 1994, Morita announced his resignation as Sony chairman, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while playing tennis.
Morita also wrote a book called Never Mind School Records in the sixties, which stressed that school records are not important in one's success, and ability to do business. He was also Vice Chairman of the Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations) and was a member of the Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group, (also known as the "Wise Men's Group").
He was awarded the Albert Medal from the United Kingdom's Royal Society of Arts in 1982, and was the first Japanese to receive the honour. Two years later, he received the National Order of the Legion of Honor (Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur), the highest and most prestigious French order, and in 1991, he was awarded the First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure from H. M. the Emperor of Japan.
He died Tokyo hospital of pneumonia in a Tokyo hospital on October 3rd 1999. He was 78.
External link
- Time magazine profile (http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/morita.html)
- Biographical notes (http://www.sony.com/SCA/press/morita_bio.html)
- Morita, Akio. "Made in Japan", New York: Dutton, 1986.
ja:盛田昭夫
zh:盛田昭夫
Related links
Top visited
0 of
0 links
[no links posted yet]
>> place link >>
Discussion
Last posted
0 of
0 messages
[no messages posted yet]
>> post message >>
Watch
You can
add this article to your own "watchlist" and receive e-mail notification about all changes in this page.
