Akio Morita was born January 26, 1921, in
Nagoya, to a long line of
sake brewers. He attended
High School Number Eight, and entered the Physics Department at
Osaka Imperial University, following a love of electronics, math, and physics.
He met
Masaru Ibuka during a brief stint in the
Navy, in the Wartime Research Committee, and they founded
Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, later
Sony) on May 7, 1946, with approximately 20 employees and initial capital of 190,000 yen. Ibuka was 38 years old at the time, and Morita was 25.
Morita also wrote a book called
Never Mind School Records in the sixties, which stressed that school records are not important in one's success, and ability to do business. He was also
Vice Chairman of the
Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations) and was a member of the Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group, (also known as the "
Wise Men's Group").
He was awarded the
Albert Medal from the United Kingdom's
Royal Society of Arts in 1982, and was the first Japanese to receive the honour. Two years later, he received the
National Order of the Legion of Honor (Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur), the highest and most prestigious French order, and in 1991, he was awarded the
First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure from H. M. the Emperor of Japan.