AKIO MORITA

ABOUT HIM
 He was born on January 26,1921 in Tokoname,
Aichi & survived till October 3, 1999.

 He was a Japanese businessman & the co-

founder of the SONY CORPORATION along with
Masaru Ibuka, which all of us are familiar with.
CONTRIBUTIONS & ATTRIBUTES
 He had a family business of sake, miso & soy sauce production. Akio however had
a keen interest in mathematics and physics.

 He joined the Osaka University in the year 1944 for his Bachelors degree in
physics. He later joined the navy during the 2 nd World War where he met his co-
founder Masaru Ibuka

 On May 7, 1946 Morita & Ibuka founded the Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
( Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, the forerunner of Sony
Corporation)

 In 1949, the company developed the magnetic recording tape and in 1950, sold the
first tape recorder in Japan, in 1957, it produced a fully pocket sized radio (the first
to be fully transistorized), and in 1958, Morita decided to rename their company
Sony (sonus in latin for sound).

 In 1960, Sony produced the first transistor television in the world. In 1975, Betamax
home video recorder, a year before V.H.S came out. In 1979, the Walkman came out
being the world’s first portable music player followed by the Discman in 1984.

 In 1960, the Sony Corporation of America was established in the U.S. and in 1960 it
became the first Japanese corps to be listed on the New York Stock Excahnge .

 Sony bought CBS Group records ( Columbia records .Epic records and other CBS
labels) later
 AWARDS & DECORATIONS
 Morita was awarded the Albert Medal by the
United Kingdom’s Royal Society of Arts in 1982,
the first Japanese to receive the honor.

 Two years later, he received the National Order

of the Legion of Honor, and in 1991 was
awarded the First Class Order of the Sacred
Treasure from the Emperor of Japan.

 In 1993, he was awarded an honorary British

Knighthood (KBE). Morita received the
International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award
from the University of Manitoba in 1987.