TOKYO (AP) - as a young man, aspiring opera singer that Norio Ohga wrote to Sony to complain about the quality of its tape recorders. This move changed the course of his life, as the company quickly recruited the man whose love of music would shape the development of the compact disc and transform the Japanese electronics manufacturer a global empire of software and entertainment.
Sony Chairman and President from 1982 to 1995, Ohga is died Saturday in Tokyo of multiple organ failure, the company said. He was 81.
Ohga connection to music led to his work. The flamboyant music connoisseur insisted to the CD be designed to 12 cm (4.8 in) in diameter to hold 75 minutes worth of music - to store of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in its entirety.
From the beginning, Ohga acknowledged the potential for superior sound quality of the CD. In the 1970s, when Ohga insisted that CDS would eventually replace Records albums, skeptics scoffed. Herbert von Karajan, Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock in the defence of his Sony digital.
Sony sold first CD in the world in 1982 and CDs away sales of records LP, in the Japan five years later. The specifications are still used today and helped the devices developed since.
?It is no exaggeration to attribute the evolution of Sony products audio and video in music, movies and game and the subsequent transformation into a leader world of entertainment to the foresight and vision, Ohga-san "Sony Corp. Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer said Saturday"?using the Japanese honorific title.
Certain decisions taken during the Presidency of the Ohga, such as the purchase of Columbia Pictures Hollywood studio $ 3.4 billion, have been criticized as little judicious and expensive at the time. But the focus of the Ohga on music, films and video games as a way to enrich ecommerce has helped create Sony success in his time.
"We are always chasing after things that other companies affect", Ohga said in a 1998 interview with the Associated Press. "It is a great secret of our success."
Shattering the stereotype of the staid Japanese Executive Ohga debonair has never been shy, her hair carefully smoothed back from its noisy exuding the fiery air yet na?ve artist. His character has added a touch of glamour to the Sony image at a time where the Japan had global ambitions.
An experienced pilot, Ohga sometimes flew the aircraft itself to business trips. A charm, he extolled his roast beef. His hobby crossed on his yacht.
Joey carbon, based in Los Angeles composer and producer of dozens of Japanese pop songs, met Ohga in 1986 after carbon has written several hits for advertisements for everything from cassettes for Honda scooters on the Sony music label.
He remembers Ohga as an outgoing Executive, international, who could speak business-oriented and a wide variety of music with aplomb equal. Office of the Ohga was covered with photos of himself with various Japanese and international artists.
"It looked like a player." "It was very outgoing," carbon, said Saturday. "It was very, how can I say - not introverted step." He was always talking, always smiling and laughing. He seemed to have a genuine love of life and music. "He seemed really love what he was doing".
President of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra since 1999, he continued to lead there are a few times per year. In 1993, he led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in charity funded by Sony.
Ohga was often compared to leading a company conducting an orchestra.
"Just as a conductor must work to bring out the best in his orchestra members, a President of the company must draw on the talents of the people in his organization," Ohga said in a 1996 Sony publication.
Sony began the destruction and poverty after the second world war and is built on the popularity of transistor radios, the Walkman, the TV Trinitron, CD - shaping the history of modern electronics.
Ohga had graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and music in 1953, and University of the Arts Berlin in 1957. It was set to pursue a career as a baritone opera singer when co-founders Sony Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, intrigued by its complaints about the sound quality of tape recorders from Sony, the recruits for the company.
He was a leader of Sony, its 30 years a rarity in a Japanese company. He was appointed President of CBS Sony Records in 1970, President of what later became Sony Corp. of America in 1988 and Chief Executive of Sony in 1989. He left the day-to-day business in about 2000.
The company said that it was key in the construction of the Sony brand, working on the design, as well as the quality, manufacture products which seemed attractive to consumers.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO, Michael Lynton and co-chair Amy Pascal "Norio Ohga was a brilliant and innovative business man whose visionary leadership had a profound impact on how people experience entertainment in the world""," said in a statement.
Ohga had attempted to lead a double life of artist and man of Sony.
One day, he asleep from exhaustion in the backstage of the scene until they go in the "marriage of Figaro," rushed in from the wrong direction and looked embarrassed colleagues stifle laughter.
He abandoned his career as an opera but still promoted classical music to the Japan supporting concerts and young musicians.
Sony has encountered difficulties in recent years, lagging behind in TVs flat rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea, and digital music players to Apple Inc.. It is unique in having a Hollywood studio, a music recording business and video games PlayStation blockbuster unit that Ohga has helped create, even if critics note it was never fully realized the benefits of owning the electronics and entertainment divisions.
Ohga is survived by his wife, Midori. Sony said that a private wake will be held later.
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AP technology writer Ryan Nakashima helped Los Angeles.
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