Entrepreneurs Who Changed History

g ADVERTISING AND CONSUMERISM g Contents

MASARU IBUKA

1908–1997

The engineering genius behind such products as the tape recorder and the all-transistor television, Masaru Ibuka grew his small electronics business into the giant Sony Corporation with cofounder Akio Morita.

Masaru Ibuka was born in Nikko City, Japan, in 1908. He studied electronics at Waseda University, Tokyo, where he became known as a “student inventor of genius.” After working for a series of scientific companies, he was employed by the Japanese Navy as a civilian radio engineer in its Wartime Research Committee, where he met Akio Morita. In 1945, Ibuka left the navy and ...