WhereIsAtlas · Electronics
Sony
Japan's electronics giant that reinvented itself — twice
Active — Thriving: PlayStation, music, imaging sensors and anime power a record-era revival.
Founded in a bombed-out Tokyo department store in 1946 as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, Sony became the symbol of Japanese consumer electronics: the transistor radio, the Trinitron TV, the Walkman in 1979, and the PlayStation in 1994 — a revenge play after Nintendo spurned a joint venture.
The 2000s brought near-collapse. The PS3's rough launch, a losing TV business, the 2011 PlayStation Network breach and a strong yen pushed Sony deep into the red. CEO Kazuo Hirai's 2012 'One Sony' turnaround sold the Vaio PC line, restructured television, and refocused the company on gaming, imaging sensors and entertainment.
Today Sony is one of the world's most profitable entertainment conglomerates: the PlayStation 5, a dominant image-sensor business inside rival smartphones, the world's largest music publisher, and an anime pipeline that includes Crunchyroll.
Quick facts
- Founded
- 1946, Tokyo
- Founders
- Masaru Ibuka, Akio Morita
- Icon launches
- Walkman (1979), PlayStation (1994)
- Vaio sold
- 2014
- PlayStation 5
- Launched 2020
- Music publishing
- World's largest
Sources
- Wikipedia: Sony — Wikipedia (2026-01-10)
- Sony history — Sony Group (2025-12-18)
- How Sony turned itself around — BBC News (2025-12-18)
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