THE MAN WHO REWIRED HUMAN THOUGHT ON TECHNOLOGY
AKIO MORITA
Consumer electronics before Morita were largely domestic fixtures, the family radio, the living room television, etc. However, in 1979, Morita championed the Walkman against near-universal internal resistance at Sony. Engineers and marketers told him no one would buy a tape player with no recording function. He overruled them, the Walkman sold 400 million units and invented the idea that you could carry your own private world of sound wherever you went. Every mobile phone and every pair of earbuds you see today traces back to that instinct.
After World War II, "Made in Japan" was a punchline synonymous with cheap imitation. Morita and co-founder Masaru Ibuka built Sony into proof that Japan could lead in quality and innovation. He did not just lift one company, he helped shift the entire global perception of Japanese manufacturing, clearing the path for Toyota, Honda, Canon, and the broader postwar economic miracle.
Morita's genius was psychological as much as technical. He believed great products did not respond to market research they created markets people did not know they wanted. That philosophy echoed forward through Steve Jobs, who cited Morita as a direct influence on him.
In 1986 he wrote the rules of global business when he published his book "Made in Japan" beaming a landmark text on competing across cultures, written at a moment when Japan and America were locked in fierce economic rivalry. Morita was a man who trusted his own taste over consensus, and he turned that stubbornness into a template for how technology could feel human.
365 men who changed the world.
Kamikun John, Author 366 days of wisdom.
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