One Life. No. 006
Akio Morita
Co-founder of Sony
19211999
From Leaky Shack to PlayStation
8 sourcesTranscriptRead while listening
The story in brief
Akio Morita was born in Nagoya in 1921, heir to his family’s sake business, founded in 1665. As a boy he built his own radio and almost flunked out of school. During the war he met an older engineer, Masaru Ibuka. Afterwards, with his father’s blessing, he chose radios over sake and joined Ibuka in a burned-out Tokyo department store. There they founded a company in 1946, with Ibuka as the senior partner. In 1947 it moved into a wooden shack so leaky that they sometimes worked under umbrellas.
In 1955 Bulova, the American watch company, wanted 100,000 of their radios under its own name. Morita refused, promising that in fifty years their name, Sony, would be just as famous. In 1963 he moved his family to New York to learn America. The 1979 Walkman began with Ibuka’s request; Morita threatened to resign if it flopped, and Sony made 150 million by 1995. Not every bet won: Betamax lost to VHS, and Sony later wrote off $2.7 billion (about $6.1 billion in 2026) on Columbia Pictures, the Hollywood studio it bought in 1989.
In 1993, at 72, a stroke during his 7 a.m. tennis game ended his career. In 1996 Americans named Sony their No. 1 brand, 41 years after his promise. He died in 1999, at 78.
In his own words
We could see bomb damage wherever we looked. There were leaks in the roof and we literally had to open umbrellas over our desks sometimes.
Fifty years from now I promise you that our name will be just as famous as your company name is today.
If we don’t sell one hundred thousand pieces by the end of this year, I will resign my chairmanship of this company.
Sources (8)
- Akio Morita with Edwin M. Reingold and Mitsuko Shimomura, Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony (1986)
- Sony, “Sony History” (the official company history); Akio Morita Library, chronology; Morita Co., company history
- John Nathan, Sony: The Private Life (1999)
- Andrew Pollack, “Akio Morita, Co-Founder of Sony and Japanese Business Leader, Dies at 78”, The New York Times, 4 October 1999 (Congressional Record reprint)
- The Christian Science Monitor, “Japanese chief melds best of both worlds”, 13 September 1983
- Sebastian Moffett, “Sony: End of an Era As Morita Bows Out”, The Moscow Times, 26 November 1994; Los Angeles Times, 27 September 1989, on Columbia Pictures
- The Harris Poll of best brands: Sony’s press release of 8 July 2004 and Harris’s table by year (MrWeb, July 2004)
- 2026 dollars: US CPI-U (BLS), August 2026
Updated October 7, 2026.
Transcript
Sony was built in bombed-out Tokyo, in a shack so leaky that its co-founder, Akio Morita, sometimes worked under an umbrella.
That shack became the company behind PlayStation, the Spider-Man movies and iPhone camera sensors.
Steve Jobs wanted Apple to be Sony.
And Morita once turned down an order for 100,000 radios, just to protect the Sony name.
He was heir to a 300-year-old sake business. But he loved sound, built his own radio, and almost flunked out of school.
After the war he chose radios over sake: he joined the engineer Masaru Ibuka, and his father let him go.
Their first flop, in a burned-out department store: a rice cooker that mostly ruined the rice.
In 1955, the American watch giant Bulova wanted their radios, but only under the Bulova name.
He said no: "Fifty years from now I promise you that our name will be just as famous as your company name is today."
When their new radio was a bit too big for a shirt pocket, he gave his salesmen shirts with bigger pockets.
Back then, the world thought "Made in Japan" meant paper umbrellas and cheap trinkets. He moved his family to New York to learn America.
In 1979 came the Walkman, music you could take anywhere. He threatened to quit if it flopped. Sony went on to make 150 million.
Even Steve Jobs's black turtleneck began with a question to Morita about Sony's uniforms.
Not every bet won: Sony's Betamax lost to VHS, and the Hollywood studio it bought cost billions, years before Spider-Man.
At 72, at his seven a.m. tennis game, he had a stroke. He died six years later.
In 1996, Americans named Sony their No. 1 brand. He'd promised fifty years. It took 41.
All of it grew up under a leaky roof.
