Business

Akio Morita

Walked away from a 15th-generation sake dynasty to co-found a radio-repair startup in bombed-out Tokyo.

Born: 1921 · Nagoya, Japan
Roots: Japanese; heir to a Nagoya sake-brewing family
Family: Affluent; Eldest son of a prosperous 15th-generation sake-brewing house, groomed from childhood to take it over.
Education: Osaka Imperial University (physics)
Started with: ¥190K; Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo's founding capital in 1946, partly lent by his father — who also released him from the family succession.
Affiliations & societies: None documented.; Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1944 · age 23
Meets Masaru Ibuka
In a wartime navy research group.
1946 · age 25
Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo¥190K
About twenty employees in a bombed-out department store.
1955 · age 34
Transistor radio
Licenses the transistor from Bell Labs against skeptics' advice.
1958 · age 37
Renames the company Sony
Chosen to be pronounceable everywhere.
1961 · age 40
First Japanese shares on the NYSE
He moves his family to New York to learn the US market firsthand.
1979 · age 58
Walkman
Pushes it through over market research predicting no demand.

Sources

Compiled from these references and contemporaneous press reporting. Figures are approximate; verify before relying on them.