Akio Morita, the brassy, white-maned entrepreneur who co-founded Sony Corp. and turned it into one of the world's most innovative electronics companies, resigned Friday as chairman because of health problems, the company announced Friday afternoon.
The terse announcement by Sony came as little surprise. Morita, 73, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage a year ago that has reportedly left him vibrant but physically impaired and using a wheel-chair.No successor was named. Norio Ohga, the chief executive and president since 1989, remains in those posts.
During Morita's 22 years as chairman, Sony achieved spectacular successes with its television sets, stereo equipment, video cameras and the much-imitated Walk-man tape player, a concept that revolutionized consumer elec-tronics. Sony also played a key role in developing the compact disc, which transformed how popular music is sold.
But the company also made some bad bets, including its commitment in the early 1980s to the Beta format during the early years of home video. After several years of competition in the marketplace, it became clear that the rival VHS format was gaining wider acceptance.
There was some speculation here that Morita's retirement would allow Sony to push Ohga up and out of the jobs of president and chief executive to clear the way for new management, especially after the company's disclosure last week that its venture into Hollywood had been a debacle.
But company officials said the resignation was at Morita's insistence and had no other meaning; several financial analysts said they accepted that view.
Just a week ago, Sony announced a humiliating $3.2 billion loss on the Hollywood studios it acquired five years ago, but company officials were at pains Friday to emphasize that Morita's long-expected departure was in no way related to Sony's business dif-fi-culties. The company said Morita offered his resignation Nov. 16 and that it was accepted by the Sony board Friday at its regular monthly meeting, which Morita attended. He will become honorary chairman, while the chairman's post will remain open for the time being.
"Psychologically, yeah, this has an impact on the company," said Joseph Osha, an analyst here with Baring Securities. "He created a very strong culture within Sony. But in terms of management, he has not been involved for some time, and this won't have a great effect."
Nonetheless, Friday's announcement is a milestone in the business history of Japan and the West - the end of a career that symbolized Japan's transformation from a low-cost industrial imitator into a highly competitive global innovator.
Along the way, Morita became Japan's most influential business diplomat.
At a time when the modest number of Japanese business leaders willing to speak publicly denied that the economy here was closed, Morita candidly acknowledged that Japan had developed predatory economic policies and said they had to be changed. He said Japan had come to resemble an economic fortress.
But he also startled Americans by stating plainly that some U.S. goods did not sell in Japan because they were of shoddy quality. Many experts now agree. He contended that Japan's trade surplus had to be reduced through efforts from both sides: Japan had to remove barriers to entry, and American industry had to become more competitive.
Morita was at the center of a controversy in the late 1980s when he was a co-author of a book, "The Japan That Can Say No," which urged that Japan learn to reject various U.S. demands and begin to use its economic might to influence international affairs.
His co-author was the right-wing nationalist Shintaro Ishihara. In his portion of the book, Ishihara took a more extreme view and insisted that Japan should finally begin to exert control over the United States by threatening to cut off its supply of computer chips if it did not stop complaining about Japanese policies.
Morita, whose views were more moderate, called for Japan to emerge from its shell, speak out and take up its global responsibilities.
Subsequently, in lengthy articles in magazines like the Atlantic Monthly, Morita agreed with American critics of Japan and said the economy was overly protected. He called for fundamental deregulation in Japan.
That position was later adopted by Japan's most powerful business lobbying organization, the Keidanren. At the time he was stricken on Nov. 30 last year, Morita was in line to become the next chairman of Keidanren, which would have made this plain-spoken outsider the voice of Japan Inc. His illness prevented him from taking the post.
Some critics said that Morita's views were often publicized as a way to suggest that change was being contemplated in Japan in hopes of deflecting complaints from foreign companies. But those who knew him said he was doing what came naturally - speaking his mind.