[Japanese Brand] SONY / Very famous Japanese brand as great innovator

Hello ! My name is shinta, Japanese blog writer, born and raised in Japan. I’m introducing real Japanese culture, from Japan to the world.

This page may assist who want

to know what is ‘SONY’ in Japan
to know history of ‘SONY’ in Japan
to get bits of knowledge about ‘SONY’ in Japan

In this page, I would like to introduce ‘SONY’ in Japan

You may get knowledge of ‘SONY’ in Japan, as well as Japanese have, after reading of this article. Have fun !

Table of contents

What is SONY
Major products
History
Summary
Postscript

What is SONY

quotation source : https://www.bloomberg.co.jp/news/articles/2019-02-07/PMKXK26JIJUS01

SONY as of today is very large company who making various businesses, not only electronics, but also insurance, real estate, etc. SONY has approx 1,700 of group companies. Japanese see and hear name of SONY in various situations in the life.

The business by SONY

Electrical products
Home game console
Bank
Insurance
Entertainment (Music, Movie, etc)
Telecommunication

Major products

quotation source : https://www.playstation.com/ja-jp/

SONY has various products, as they make businesses in various industries. Some of them have large share in Japanese market. It’s very difficult for Japanese to live without SONY brand.

Major SONY products in Japanese market

Flat Panel TV ‘BRAVIA’ (Market share 23% in 2019)
Play Station 4 (8.7 millions units sold in total)
Video Camera (Market share 23% in 2019)
Mirrorless Camera (Market share 26 % in 2019)
Wireless Earphones (Market share 14% in 2019)
Car Insurance (No.1 sales in ‘Direct Type’ category)

History

quotation source : https://www.sony.co.jp/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/sonyhistory-e.html

In 1946, founders, Mr. Masaru Ibuka and Mr. Akio Morita established ‘Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation’, later known as ‘SONY’. SONY contributed to development of Japanese economy well and got support of Japanese people.

History of SONY

Established in 1946, year after the end of WWII
In 1950 developed first tape recorder in Japan
In 1955, developed first transistor radio in Japan
In 1958, changed company name to SONY
In 1979, developed portable audio, ‘WALKMAN’
In 1993, PlayStation is released
In 2001, established SONY BANK

Summary

In the end, I would like to summarize the points of this article as follows

I like ‘SONY’ !

What is ‘SONY’ in Japan

Very famous company in Japan, high popularity of electronics goods
Established in 1946
Large share in Japan of TV, Playstation, Video Camera, Mirrorless camera, etc

Postscript

That’s all today.
How was the content today ?

SONY is a very famous brand in Japan. Recently, power of brand seems slightly decreased, due to rising of foreign products, like apple. However Japanese still support SONY, and I really like it , actually, TV in my living room is SONY.

In the end, thank you very much for your reading today and see you again !