The great mind behind Sony Corporation

Ibuka Masaru

Ibuka Masaru is one of the most successful inventors and entrepreneurs in the electronics industry. He is known for co-founding Sony Corporation. He is the great mind behind Japan’s electronics industry which currently leads the world of electronics. He led Japanese to create their own innovative electronic products instead of imitating the ones from the western world. He was the mind behind Japan’s first transistor radio in 1955, the world’s first transistor television in 1960, Sony Trinitron colour television in 1968, Walkman and PlayStation. Sony Corporation which was started with the name: Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K begun operating just after the World War II as a radio repair shop in a department store destroyed by bombing in the War. 

Early Life

Ibuka Masaru was born on April 11, 1908, in Nikko, Japan to Tasuku and Sawa Ibuka.  Early in his childhood he showed great interest in experimenting with gadgets. After graduating from Waseda High School, he furthered his education to Waseda University’s School of Science and Engineering where he completed with a degree in engineering in 1933. At the university he earned the nickname “genius inventor” due to his curiosity and discoveries. In 1933, he won an international science fair award in Paris for his invention, a modulated-light transmission system.

 

Early Career

 After graduating from the university he was appointed a research engineer with Photo-Chemical Laboratory, a company that recorded and processed motion picture film. At this position, Ibuka researched into the technology of sound recording on movie film. He worked with the company from 1933 to 1937. From 1937 to 1940 he took another position as the head of the radio telegraphy department of Nippon-Ko-On (Japan Opto-Acoustic) Industrial Co. Here he worked on the production and development of home sound movie devices. In 1940, during World War II, he was appointed the managing director of Japan Measuring Instrument Corporation. His engineering prowess helped him to create a device in aircraft that detected submarines. This invention aided Japan in their fight in World War II. It was at this point, summer of 1944, that he met a friend, Akio Morita, who would later become Sony co-founder. Akio was a physics degree holder and a lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Both were assigned to a task force to create a heat-seeking missile.

 

The Birth of Sony

In 1945, after World War II, Ibuka resigned from the company to start a radio repair shop in Tokyo. In the following year he was joined by his colleague Akio Morita and in May 1946 they named the company: Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company). The two founders were much interested in creating their own electronics rather than copying the ones from the western market. The company started an early research into the use of magnetic powders and tape base material. In 1949 they developed a magnetic recording tape and a year on; the company started marketing the world’s first tape recorder called type-G in Japan. They never gave up the fight to come out with unique electronics. They continued their research and decided to manufacture a radio.

In the process of research and development for their first radio they heard that an American company called Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates has taken the lead to manufacture the world’s first radio. Regency had a joint project with Texas instrument (TI), and TI manufactured transistors for the radio bringing out the world’s first transistor radio. On October 18, 1954, the transistor radio was released onto the US market with the name Regency TR1.

Back in Japan Ibuka and Akio were not intimidated by the lead America has taken, they continued with their hard work and eventually produced a radio which they named TR-55. In the spring of 1955, Regency stopped the manufacturing of Regency TR. This inspired Ibuka and Akio to enter the US market with their TR-55.

Ibuka-left, Akio right

Along the way they faced a challenge; the company’s name, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K, was difficult to be pronounced by the Americans. Ibuka and Akio had to think of changing the name. They first came out with the word sonus a latin word which means sound. The two guys were later attracted to a term in America, sonny boys, this was a name given to bright young men in America at the time. The Japanese company realised the name sounded like sonus and also good image was attached to the name. With these ideas they came up with the name Sony. In 1958, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was changed to Sony Corporation. Sony Corporation started spreading out through America, Japan and Europe. The company is currently one of the leading manufacturers of consumer electronics in the world. 

In 1960 Sony manufactured the world’s first transistor television and in 1968 they came out with the Sony Trinitron colour television. Ibuka was the great mind behind all this inventions. He was the president of Sony from 1950 to 1971 and he acted as the chairman of the company from 1971 to 1976. He retired in 1976 and was made honorary chairman of Sony.

Personal Life

In 1936 he got married to Sekiko Maeda and they gave birth to two daughters and a son. He divorced his wife and on August 31, 1966 got married to Yoshiko Kurosawa. 

 

He had great interest in early childhood education because he believed that man’s greatest learning point is at age 3. He is the author of the books: The Zero-Year Child and Kindergarten is Too Late. These books were published in 1970 and 1971 respectively.  

He received Honorary Doctorate degree from Sophia University, Tokyo in 1976, Waseda University, Tokyo in 1979, and Brown University, USA, in 1994. 

He received many international awards including the Medal of Honor with Blue Ribbon from the Emperor of Japan. In 1972, IEEE awarded him IEEE founders Medal.

 

Ibuka Masaru died on 19 December 1997 in Tokyo, Japan.