May 7, 1946 — Sony Was Founded

On May 7, 1946, a small company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo appeared in war-damaged Tokyo. The world would later know it by a different name — Sony.

The company was founded by engineer Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita. In the beginning, they had around twenty employees, a small workshop inside a partially destroyed building, and capital of about 190,000 yen (roughly $2,000 in today’s money).

The company started by repairing radios and assembling electrical devices.

The first major breakthrough came in 1950, when Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo released the Type-G, the first Japanese tape recorder. The machine was huge and expensive, but it marked the beginning of Sony’s history as an electronics manufacturer.

A few years later, the company obtained a license from Bell Labs to use transistor technology. At the time, most American companies viewed transistors mainly as military or industrial components. Sony decided to focus on compact consumer electronics instead.

In 1955, the Sony brand appeared. The name was deliberately chosen to be short and easy to understand internationally.

By the late 1950s, Sony was producing pocket-sized transistor radios. For Japan, this was a huge moment: Japanese electronics started being seen as modern and high quality.

After that, the company kept appearing at major moments in the history of consumer technology: radios, televisions, the Walkman cassette player, compact discs, PlayStation, and professional equipment.

Sony also had a major influence on the music and film industries. The company owned studios and music labels while also manufacturing the devices people used to listen to and watch that content. At the time, that combination was unusual.

Today Sony is no longer just an electronics manufacturer. The company works in gaming, film, music, camera sensor production, professional equipment, and semiconductors. But it all started in a small workshop in Tokyo on May 7, 1946.