Akio Morita

Rating

Domains

Scouting report

Co-founded Sony in the ruins of postwar Tokyo and spent forty years insisting a Japanese company could sell to the world under its own name rather than someone else’s label. Pushed the transistor radio, the Trinitron and, over his own engineers’ objections, the Walkman, a tape player with no record function that sold hundreds of millions. He also lost the format war with Betamax.

Curator’s note

Proved a hardware brand could be built on taste rather than price.

Portrait

Painted from a photograph of Akio Morita by プレジデント社　撮影者不明, licensed Public domain.

Sources

• 01Akio Morita en.wikipedia.org
• 02Walkman en.wikipedia.org