Konosuke Matsushita

Founder of Matsushita Electric

Matsushita was sent to Osaka to be an apprentice in a charcoal brazier shop at the age of 9. With harsh experience in his early days, Matsushita always looked at difficult times with great optimism to learn, improve and strengthen himself. He started his own company, Matsushita Electric, at the age of 22.

He excelled as an innovator and a leader, turning his company into an electronics giant. Matsushita Electric’s success led to visits from foreign VIPs such as United States attorney general Robert Kennedy and Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, and the media also embraced Matsushita. He was featured in Life magazine in September 1954, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine in February 1963, bringing Matsushita Electric to worldwide prominence.

He retired as company chairman in 1973. Five years later, he spent 7 billion yen (equal to about $32 million at the time) of his own money to build the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management in the hope of training future leaders. Its graduates include people working in a wide range of fields, from politics to business, media, research and education.

Matsushita died in 1989 at age 94.

Matsushita’s decision to invest in China testifies to his extraordinary strength of character. He reckoned that making money was something all companies must aspire to. However, he also believed that a company’s activities should benefit society.”

Akio Tanii, Panasonic’s chairman from 1986 to 1993

Known in Japan as “the god of management”, Konosuke Matsushita was a man of vision.He was born in 1894, the youngest child in a family of 10.