Made In Japan

Book Review: Written by Vindu Vikash (EGMP21 Batch), IIM Bangalore. Email: Vindu.Vikash@iimb.ernet.in

Made in Japan (AKIO MORITA and SONY)
Author: Akio Morita with Edwin M Reingold and Mitsuko Shimomura
Publisher: Published by the Penguin Group, Penguin Books Ltd.
Year of publication: The autobiography was originally published in English (ISBN 0525244654)
in year 1986 and has beentranslated to 12 languages, so far.
(ISBN) is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 10-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by
Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in
1966. Since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland EAN-13s

About the authors:
This book has been written with the assistance of Edwin M. Reingold and Mitsuko Shimomura. Edwin
M. Reingold has been Time Magazine‟s Tokyo bureau chief for eleven years . Mitsuko Shimomura is a
leading journalist in Japan, known for her writing on politics and international affairs.
AKIO MORITA became chairman of the board and CEO of Sony Corp oration in January, 1976.He
was the imaginative marketing wizard & was responsible for making Sony as one of top consumer
electronics brand name in the world. He died on 3 October 1999 at age of 78 year.

'Made in Japan' by Akio Morita is arguably one of the best and thought provoking books that I have read so far. Made in Japan is
an autobiography of Late Mr. Akio Morita, the co-founder and former chairman of SonyCorporation. The book not only narrates the
story of Morita, but also talks about the making of one of the most successful electronics companies in the modern world , „Sony
Corporation's formation in the aftermath of Japan's brutal defeat in World War II, and its subsequent rapid rise to fame and fortune.
The book also provides insights into Japanese social and business culture and the Japaneseway of thinking, particularly the Japanese
business management, philosophies and styles. The Japanese behavior is explained by putting it into a context based on Japan's
history, recent and ancient.
Through, this book Morita introduces the origins of his family, and how Sony was founded. The book is narrated by Morita in an
intensely personal, down to earth, conversational style. The book isdivided into the following nine sections/ chapters:


War (Survival and Hope)



Peace (Our new life begins)




Selling To The World (My learning curve)
On Management (It's all in the family)



American and Japanese Styles (The difference)



Competition (The fuel of Japanese Enterprise)



Technology (Survival Exercise)



Japan and The World (Alienation andAlliance)



World Trade (Averting Crisis)

Chapters picture the war, early tape recorders, and various observation and conclusions on international markets. The book by Morita
also explains about various aspects of Japanese business, government and society . It was on to a seminal visit to Bell Labs in the early
1950s, when Morita looked at the best of American research—the transistor(for which its American inventors saw only a smal l niche
market in hearing aids), and how the Sony took advantage of it. The biography gives authentic details about patent issues, business
conferences in various countries, and the invention of the first transistor television in the world (1960), VCR (1965, with aid of
Aimpex Technology), Released the first Betamax home video recorder (1975), ayear before VHS by JVC came out, Invention of
Walkman- making it the world's first portable music player (1979), Compact Disc(1980, Under Joint research with Philips) and
launched the Discman series which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products (1984) et cetra.
War (Survival and Hope)
Akio Morita was born on January 26, 1921, the first son and fifteenth-generation heir to a...