Sony Founded in Tokyo: The Electronics Revolution Begins
Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) on May 7, 1946, in a bombed-out department store in Tokyo with $530 in capital and twenty employees. Their first consumer product was a rice cooker that didn't work properly. Their first success was a tape recorder, the G-Type, in 1950. The company was renamed Sony in 1958, combining "sonus" (Latin for sound) with "sonny" (a term of endearment for young men). Sony introduced the transistor radio in 1955, the Trinitron color television in 1968, the Walkman in 1979, the CD player (with Philips) in 1982, and the PlayStation in 1994. Each product fundamentally changed its industry. Morita's insistence on building a global brand under a single name was revolutionary for a Japanese company.
May 7, 1946
80 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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