{"id":31365,"date":"2015-08-25T11:22:28","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T02:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/?p=31365"},"modified":"2015-08-26T09:35:29","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T00:35:29","slug":"sony-founder-and-waseda-alumnus-masaru-ibuka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/news\/31365","title":{"rendered":"Sony founder and Waseda alumnus Masaru Ibuka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Waseda University Archives<br \/>\nShigeharu Takagi<\/p>\n<p>Japanese electronics industrialist and co-founder of Sony Masaru Ibuka was an alumnus of Waseda University\u2019s former School of Science and Engineering. Ibuka enjoyed tinkering with devices as a child and prioritized experimentation over classwork at university. He created a giant speaker for Meiji Jingu Stadium with a fellow classmate upon request from electrician, inventor, and educator Tadaoki Yamamoto. In 1933 he garnered significant attention after newspapers covered his graduate research on light-wave communication.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31368\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-31368   \" alt=\"ww1349_\u65e9\u7a32\u7530\u306b\u6b74\u53f2\u3042\u308a_\u4e95\u6df1\u5927\" src=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/08\/8ea50cbcf1dbe31f68d856450e34380b.jpg\" width=\"285\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/08\/8ea50cbcf1dbe31f68d856450e34380b.jpg 791w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/08\/8ea50cbcf1dbe31f68d856450e34380b-610x462.jpg 610w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 285px) 100vw, 285px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ibuka receiving an honorary doctorate at Waseda <br \/> on October, 1979 (Courtesy of Waseda University<br \/> Archives)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ibuka\u2019s reputation as an inventor is strong, but he was also active in selling his devices overseas.<\/p>\n<p>Creator of Japan\u2019s first tape recorder, Ibuka traveled to the US for the first time in 1952. The purpose of his trip was to learn about US technology and sell his own company\u2019s products. \u201cEven if we create new devices, they may not be welcomed by Japanese consumers. However, they will surely catch the interest of US consumers,\u201d said Ibuka with high expectations. Although the trip was not successful in terms of sales, it laid the groundwork for the huge success of Sony\u2019s future transistors.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31367\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-31367   \" alt=\"???????????????????????????????\" src=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/08\/66fb031bdbbacc17f3dda43da8b10796.jpg\" width=\"271\" height=\"360\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ibuka&#8217;s graduation thesis (courtesy of Waseda<br \/> University Archives)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Sony products such as pocketables, the Trinitron, and the Walkman, were given English inspired names for international marketing purposes. Sony was established to succeed overseas and developed international marketing strategies. However, Ibuka did not simply want to advance into the international market. \u201cIt would be great for Sony to be recognized as a global entity, but it is because I love Japan, the country that raised me, that I believe we must look to the rest of the world.\u201d Ibuka believed in the importance of staying true to one\u2019s self and served as a trustee and counselor at Waseda University where he made several donations towards the development of the university. Ibuka, who advanced overseas while staying true to himself is a prime example of a Waseda global citizen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Waseda University Archives Shigeharu Takagi Japanese electronics industrialist and co-founder of Sony Masaru I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,117],"tags":[45,172],"class_list":["post-31365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-topic","tag-alumni-en","tag-history-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31394,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31365\/revisions\/31394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}