The magnitude of Sony’s later successes in selling high-quality home appliances is all the more impressive when one finds out that among Sony’s first products was a primitive heating pad, a rice cooker that did not work, and a tape recorder that used paper tapes because quality plastic was unavailable.

One of these is a 50-page section devoted to Sony’s early days. The result is a corporate samurai's fragmentary testament, which is chauvinistic, combative, condescending, disingenuous, evasive, and self-serving-but seldom less than fascinating.But “Made in Japan” is not without redeeming passages. Mainly, though, he concentrates on making a case for the Japanese version of free trade. In particular, he's concerned about the country's rigidly structured educational system, and its dearth of venture capital. Morita does not believe either Japan or its socioeconomic institutions are above reproach. Intense competition on the home front prepares Japanese enterprise for the rough-and-tumble rivalry of the export trade, according to Morita, who contends his country is liberalizing its import policies and eliminating non-tariff barriers as quickly as political realities permit. He concedes, too, that the absence of an indigenous military establishment has freed technology-minded companies to concentrate on high-margin consumer goods-and offshore outlets. In his explanation of Japan's rise to industrial power, he suggests Japanese corporations have made the best of it, e.g., with productive retraining programs. For example, he points out that the credit (or blame) for the lifetime employment rights enjoyed by Japanese workers belongs to ''left-wing economic technicians'' who advised America's occupation forces. He does, though, speak out on many aspects of the ties that bind the US and Japan. Beyond some proforma tributes to his wife and a few remarks on breaking with tradition by declining to join the family business, Morita has little to say of a personal nature.

He also developed a worldly-wise appreciation for marketing that has made him an articulate spokesman for free trade. In summary fashion, Morita reviews his life and interesting times, from a privileged boyhood as the 15th-generation heir to a sake-brewing finn near Nagoya through an extraordinarily successful career as a globe-trotting executive-Along the way, he served in Japan's WW II Navy (as a shore-based engineering officer), helped Sony achieve a leadership position in consumer electronics, and played a key role in changing the West's perception of Japan's industrial/commercial competence. Nonetheless, his experiences as a co-founder of Japan's transnational Sony Corp., strongly held opinions, and the vital issues he addresses make for a generally engrossing, if not quite coherent, narrative. Morita tries to cover far too much ground in this memoir-cum-commentary.

Made in japan akio