Our profound sense of condolences

The Issue: The untimely passing of Mr. Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony Corp. who made a difference in rebuilding Japan’s economy.

Our View: We extend our most profound sense of condolences to the Morita family and the people of Japan in these difficult times.

“Politicians and business executives mourned the death of Sony Corp. co-founder Ako Morita, lauding the entrepreneur who helped change Japan’s image from a maker of slipshod products to world class manufacturer.

“Morita was a leading figure who played a pivotal role in developing Japan’s postwar economy”, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was quoted as saying. He was one of 400 world dignitaries who visited the home of the world renowned businessman.

The late “Morita co-founded the electronics giant in a bombed out department store after World War II. He was the last of a generation of Japanese industrialists that included carmaker Soichiro Honda and electronics rival Konosuke Matsushita.

“Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who co-authored “The Japan That Can Say No”, with Morita, called him an exceptional businessman with a cosmopolitan outlook. “He had the international mind that Japan lacked in the past and looked at Japan’s place in the world with a sense of relativity”, he said.

“Sony Corp. began in 1946 when Morita, the oldest son of a rice wine-brewer, joined former Japanese navy colleague Masaru Ibuka, a fellow engineer, to start a business repairing radios on a borrowed $500. Using old parts and ingenuity in Japan’s harsh postwar economy, he and Ibuka produced Japan’s first magnetic recording tape and tape recorder in 1950.

“They made Japan’s first transistors in 1954 after convincing government industrial planners to allow their upstart company to buy the rights to the American device. They made Japan’s first all-transistor radio in 1955. Sony made the world’s first all-transistor television in 1960 and the first home video tape recorder in 1965.

“With Morita as president of Sony’s US subsidiary, Sony in 1970 became the first Japanese firm to be listed on the New Stock Exchange and in 1972, became one of the first Japanese companies to build a US factory. Perhaps the company’s most famous success was the Walkman personal stereo cassette player, which Sony began selling in the 1980s. Today, Sony continues to lead the world in electronics and computer entertainment.

For a world renown industrialist with humble beginnings who played a key role in the reconstruction of Japan’s economy after World War II, he most assuredly demonstrated to the entire global community what leadership is all about in a highly competitive global market. Our most profound condolences to the Morita family and the people of Japan in the loss of a great mind and industrial giant. Si Yuus Maase`!