NEWSWEEK: Would Mr. Morita understand the restructuring now underway at Sony? IDEI: He gave a speech one month before his debilitating stroke. He pointed out that we have to learn from Americans again. That was 1993. He sensed that the structure of America’s economy was changing as it emerged from recession.
Is it still important that Japan learn from America? Japan and America learn from each other. Motorola adopted Japanese-style production controls. Toyota’s manufacturing system had a great impact on the American auto industry. We are now learning how to manage a company according to market principles. In the next 10 years, I think the Japanese economy will regain strength by becoming a network society.
Japan Inc. has been slow to realize the importance of the Internet. Has Sony made this mistake? I don’t feel we are particularly far behind American companies. But it’s true that most Japanese companies are five to 10 years behind.
How will Internet access affect average Japanese? The Internet is still very expensive in Japan because of high communications costs. But the government is doing a lot to install hardware at schools. Like Al Gore says, schools and libraries are the Internet’s initial stage. In this country, however, game users are also future Internet users.
Product cycles in the electronics industry are forever getting shorter. How will Sony adjust? We don’t need so many factories because we use fewer components to manufacture things like televisions than we did 10 years ago. Our plan is to reduce the total from 70 plants to 55 within three years, and it is on schedule.
But in your speech you said you didn’t oppose the concept of lifetime employment. Yes, lifetime employment is an obligation under Japanese law. This is our system, so we have to respect it.
How, then, do you keep electronics viable? Have you closed factories? Yes, we have quietly closed several factories. Sony now has no factories within Tokyo. We converted them to service and customer-information centers.
How will Sony look in 10 years? Our core business won’t have changed, because Sony is a company about fun. We enhance the quality of life with such products as the Walkman, with music and other entertainment content. This was Mr. Morita’s legacy. Sony’s spirit won’t change.
