Marking the 80th Anniversary of Sony's Founding

To begin, we present a message from President and CEO Hiroki Totoki commemorating Sony's 80th anniversary:

Since its founding, Sony has embraced a spirit of freedom and open-mindedness - continually taking on new challenges without being bound by conventions.

By combining creativity and technology, we have strived to create new value and new markets, delivering unprecedented experiences and Kando (emotion) to people across generations.

While our business originated in electronics, Sony has never stood still. By staying ahead of the change , we have continuously evolved our business portfolio to include entertainment - games, music, pictures and anime, semiconductors such as CMOS image sensors, and financial services.

Today, guided by our Purpose to "fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology," we are pursuing our long-term Creative Entertainment Vision which defines where Sony aims to be in ten years. The key message of this vision, "Create Infinite Realities," expresses our ambition that, in the multi-layered worlds where the physical and virtual realities overlap, we aim to develop and deliver limitless Kando through the power of creativity and technology together with creators.

In recent years, initiatives that transcend organizational boundaries have steadily taken shape, connecting value across our diverse businesses. Through these connections, our ability to work closely with creators and bring new value to life continues to grow.

Guided by our corporate DNA, Sony will continue to explore what lies ahead and take on new challenges - always in pursuit of the next possibilities.

Hiroki Totoki
President and CEO
Sony Group Corporation

The Reason to Revisit 80 Years of History Now

As reflected in the message from President and CEO Hiroki Totoki, today's Sony was not built overnight. Under its surface lies the accumulated work and effort from countless challenges undertaken over the course of 80 years. With this in mind, the Archive Team within the Corporate Communications Department of Sony Group Corporation took a new look at Sony's journey and compiled it into the 80th Anniversary - Sony Group History, connecting the significance of this journey to the present and conveying it on to Sony's next generation.

Sony's corporate history was first compiled for its 40th anniversary in 1986 under the title Genryu, and has gone without any major updates for nearly 30 years since the 50th anniversary edition published in 1996. Sony Group's business structure and management approach naturally continued to evolve during that time, and how to reassess and reorganize these developments became a key focus when compiling the 80th Anniversary Edition.

"The first 50 years for Sony marked a period when the company was just a small workshop built by founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka, which eventually expanded across the globe through the power of its electronics. The subsequent 30 years up to the present represent a significant period of transition during which the Group expanded into new businesses and, in response, evolved its organizational structure, gradually evolving into the Creative Entertainment Company it is today. Accurately and factually documenting these 30 years and preserving this history for future generations - a task left undone until now - carries great significance," said Takanobu Kishi, one of the compilation's editors.

Simultaneously, the Archive Team paid close attention to preserve and respect the perspectives and concerns present when the corporate history was first compiled, while also revising and updating the accounts from Sony's first 50 years to connect them to the Sony of today in a more multidimensional way. This effort was made possible by the Archive Team's continuous work over the years collecting, organizing, preserving, and digitizing internal documents, photographs, videos, and other materials.

One specific example is the founding of CBS/Sony Records in 1968. In order to present the events of Sony's first major business venture outside of electronics in greater context, "we included actual correspondence between Akio Morita and Norio Ohga* - the person first entrusted with managing the new company - as well as accounts on the process through which the company developed as a record business," Kishi explained.

Yuri Sato, another member of the Archive Team, added that "Rather than simply recording the fact that an event happened or a decision was made, we collected isolated records and, viewing them in the big picture, connected them to the timeline in order to convey the discussions and background behind each decision." Reweaving isolated points into this continuous line from the perspective of today's Creative Entertainment Company is one of the major accomplishments of the 80th Anniversary Edition.

Not for Nostalgia, but for Considering the Next Challenge

The goal of publishing the 80th Anniversary - Sony Group History this year was not to simply nostalgically remember the past. Rather, it aims to serve as reference material and a source of inspiration for the people who are taking on new challenges in the present, and who will become the backbone of Sony in the future.

"We felt that in order for everyone working across the diverse businesses of the Sony of today, as well as for people outside the company who care about Sony to understand what kind of company Sony is, it would be essential for them to learn about Sony's DNA - the starting point for our Purpose and long-term vision - as well as the trials and tribulations that led us here," says Tokuro Terao of the Archive Team.

The 80th Anniversary History certainly does not depict a timeline purely of Sony's successes. Looking back even on what are now Sony's most core businesses, it is clear that the road was never a completely smooth one.

Sony's research on image sensors, for instance, was launched based off of a scientific paper published in 1970, but it took nearly a decade before the technology materialized as a commercial product. Similarly, Sony's anime business was created in the 1990s and it took many years for the business to grow into its current form. In each case, these businesses kept marching forward until today by persevering through times of hardship and continuing to take on new challenges. "That's precisely why we hope that people currently in the midst of their own new challenges and facing their own difficult situations can take the time to read it," says Kishi.

The online version of the 80th Anniversary - Sony Group History will be released progressively starting May 7, giving readers the opportunity to follow the path that has led to the Sony of today.

In addition, to mark Sony's 80th anniversary and the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Sony Building, the "100.80.60. Exhibition" is being held at Ginza Sony Park in Tokyo from April 24 (Friday) to May 31 (Sunday), 2026. The exhibition looks back on 100 years of change in Ginza through a three-dimensional display of essays, poems, and short stories newly written by 11 distinctive authors and artists.