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Japan 's Defeat During World War II Essay

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Masaru Ibuka founded Sony Corporation in the aftermath of Japan’s defeat during World War II (IJ 106). Following the company’s startup, Ibuka urged Akio Morita, a navy technical lieutenant in thermos optical weapons, to come to Tokyo and join him in the start-up of his new business venture (IJ 106). In May 1946, Sony Corporation was officially established as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Kabushiki Kaisha), a joint stock company (SE1). From the start Ibuka and Morita were determined to develop a global market for their products (Global 50). During the early 1950’s Japanese products suffered from the public perception of their “poor quality” as compared to products made in the United States (IJ 106). Morita reasoned that if Sony was going to enter into the manufacturing and sales of electronic equipment, it was necessary to establish a market presence in the United States (IJ 107). Thus in 1952, Morita decided to traveled to the United States in order to examine how US companies manufactured and marketed tape recorders as well as to examine potential market opportunities for Totsuken exports (IJ 107) At the time, Western Electric had recently made the patent rights for manufacturing a transistor (which was invented in 1948 at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories) available to anyone who would pay royalties. Ibuka’s desire to effectively use the diverse strengths of his engineering and specialist talent would ultimately influence his decision to have Totsuko work on the

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