34 years ago in TIME: Announcing its first foreign head last week was a big step for Sony. If the Dutch can produce goods of excellent quality, said Akio Morita, the Japanese could do it too.

Announcing its first foreign head last week was a big step for Sony, the Japanese electronics giant that was founded and run for years by AKIO MORITA.

A young businessman named Akio Morita made his first trip outside Japan in 1953 to investigate export prospects for his struggling little electronics…

Sony Corp. will open a distribution and service center to be located, in the Netherlands, Akio Morito recalls, “I saw an agricultural country and yet it was producing goods of excellent quality.

IN 1953, a young businessman named Akio Morita made his first trip outside Japan to investigate export prospects for his struggling little electronics company. He was dismayed to find that in the sophisticated markets of the U.S. and Europe, the words Made in Japan were a mocking phrase for…