He could have become a winemaker – several generations of his family had been producing sake. However, he became a physicist at a military research center. There he met engineer Masaru Ibuka and they founded a new company in Tokyo in 1947. They chose a beautiful motto for the new company: “Creating our unique products.” They quickly commenced the production of electrical equipment and started developing a completely new product, the tape recorder. The company succeeded in designing, but there was no one to buy tape recorders in impoverished post-war Japan. The Ministry of Justice saved the situation: it procured tape recorders for all Japanese courts. And later people began to grow rich in a step-by-step way. The company recovered and has firm positions now. However, it has changed its motto. Now it sounds very simple: “It’s a Sony.”