Times Have Changed, Departing Sony Boss Says
When Masayoshi Morimoto arrived at UC Berkeley for a summer’s study in 1964, he found that hardly anyone he met had ever heard of his company, Sony Corp. A few acquaintances knew of Toyota, but only that those funny Japanese cars broke down at high speeds on the San Francisco Bay Area freeways.
Even when Morimoto returned to the United States in 1972 as a manager for Sony’s small television assembly plant being opened in San Diego, he found that, while Americans now knew of Sony, they still viewed Japanese products with condescension.
But no more. As Morimoto, popularly known as Mike around the now-vast Sony complex in Rancho Bernardo, prepares to leave for a new post after 15 years here, he says that “Japan has become kind of a monster in the U.S. view.”
“I would not have believed (the changes) that took place if you had asked me in 1972 what today would be like,” Morimoto said, noting that he is leaving to head up Sony’s operations in Brazil at a time of great strain in the U.S.-Japan economic relationship.
President Reagan last week imposed 100% tariffs on Japanese imports that account for as much as $300 million in annual sales, in retaliation for the alleged dumping in this country of semiconductors in violation of a trade agreement, the first such trade action ever by the United States.
“For years, the U.S. was always tolerant of problems with Japanese trade policies and with (Japan) opening up its markets (to American and other foreign goods), but no more,” Morimoto said. “I see the whole issue boiling down to the fact that Americans and Europeans do not feel they are enjoying the same freedoms to sell in Japan as they allow the Japanese in their own countries.”
Expect Different Behavior
In Morimoto’s opinion, that view is partly, but not totally, correct.
“I don’t think that the Japanese government, or even top business leaders, realize that now the American people regard Japan as equal, and in some cases superior, to the U.S.” in economic prowess, Morimoto said.
“So Americans expect Japanese now to behave differently. But many Japanese still feel comfortable in the old relationship, where they were seen as (little) and could be more parochial.”
Morimoto said that most Japanese cannot comprehend why Americans are upset with their country. “After all, they see themselves working hard and making a good-quality product that Americans want to buy. So, as a result, it’s very difficult to get them to change.”
In addition, Morimoto said that most Japanese who come to America--either to visit or for business--do not see the downside of the nation’s economy. The typical Japanese sees golf courses and well-kept suburban dwellings while in the United States, and watches a similar slice of American life on Japanese television or through movies.
“They don’t see unemployment in Ohio or Detroit,” Morimoto said. “Maybe if they did, they would understand better the American reaction.”
Also, Morimoto said that, while the average blue-collar worker in Japan now has a higher per capita salary than his American counterpart, the purchasing power of the Japanese worker is still far lower in Japan.
Management salaries in Japan lag behind those in the United States, also helping to perpetuate what Morimoto called “the second-class mind-set” among Japanese vis-a-vis Americans.
Morimoto said that, in the past, American pressure on Japan to open its markets more to foreign products was seen as periodic, something that would blow over, akin to typhoons that have seasonally buffeted the Japanese islands for thousands of years.
Should the pressure remain steady, however, Morimoto believes that the Japanese government will improve the environment for imports.
Some Winners
But Morimoto stressed that more than a few American companies sell successfully in Japan, as several recent books on the U.S.-Japan economic competition have pointed out. Included among them are IBM and Coca-Cola.
He said that they are successful in the same way that Japanese companies selling in the United States, such as Sony, are successful. Such firms studied the consumer preferences of Americans before ever realizing their first profits.
“Many American people tend to believe that their way of thinking, of consuming, is universal. But it is not. Americans are naive in thinking that everyone in the world thinks the same way,” he said.
“Few Americans learn Japanese, for example,” Morimoto added, referring to strategies to ease into Japanese markets.
American top management also goes for short-term profits rather than long-term gains, he said. Noting how Japanese companies had spent long years perfecting now-popular items such as video recorders, Morimoto said “it’s kind of sad” that no American firms undertook similar efforts.
But Morimoto praised American workmanship--on which Sony relies in its several factories in this country--and discounted an often-heard argument that the quality of American-made products has fallen over the years and made sales abroad more difficult.
“Personally, I really don’t see any real deterioration of quality or service over the time (15 years) that I have lived here,” Morimoto said. “I still believe I can rely on American society.”
