Cooper Hewitt says...
Akio Morita was the co-founder of the Sony Corporation. He played a crucial role in developing Japan's postwar economy and was one of the most famous businessmen in Japan, if not the world. Morita was born in Nagoya, an industrial city in central Japan. In high school he became an electronics hobbyist.He studied physics at Osaka Imperial University. During World War II, he was a lieutenant in the Japanese Navy and met an electrical engineer named Masru Ibuka. After the war, Morita was offered a teaching position at Tokyo Institute of Technology, but after reading a newspaper article about Ibuka opening a research lab, he went to visit him. The two formed a partnership and founded Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, inaugarated on May 7, 1946. The company produced Japan's first reel-to-reel magnetic tape recorder. In 1958, the company changed its name to the more marketable Sony. In 1960, an American subsidiary called Sony Corporation of America was formed. In 1961, Sony was the first Japanese corporation to have it’s stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Morita moved to New York City in 1963 where he built strong connections with American businesses, and set up a global network of manufacturing sites. He played an important role in product development, including on the Walkman. At the time of his death, Morita was the most famous Japanese citizen in the world, and Sony was the number one consumer brand in the United States.
