By Tom Plate
Los Angeles - Long before just about everyone and his uncle began throwing around the term ``brand'' and ``branding'' as if they had personally invented it, a visionary from Japan was actually doing some big-time branding of his own instinct. The brand under his renown became internationally famous as SONY, and as long as Akio Morita was to have anything to say about it, that brand was going to be synonymous with state-of-the-science consumer electronics - at its very ``ichiban'' best.
When Morita died in Tokyo in 1999, everyone knew that an era had ended; what was unclear was whether the death of this princely potentate and SONY co-founder (in 1946) would auger the decline of the brand itself.
That prospect is still unclear. But though SONY does seem to be stumbling of late, what's certain is that it was people like Morita - not to mention other Japanese branding giants of the 20th century like Soichiro Honda and Kiichiro Toyoda - who made the world's consumers stop laughing when a product for sale was labeled ``Made in Japan.''
They certainly stopped laughing in Detroit, as the Japanese began making autos that actually ran, at prices that people could actually afford.
The subject of the Magnificent Moritas hit my radar screen for three reasons.
One was the glittering opening ceremony and exhibition last week of his life and works. Attended by a slice of the L.A. elite, it was lovingly organized by the daughter of Akio Morita, Mrs. Naoko Okada, and supported by such luminaries as Kazuo Kodama, Japan's consul general here, and William Ouchi, a best-selling author and famed UCLA professor. The exhibition is housed at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles.
Says Kodama, one of Japan's blue-chip diplomats: ``Akio Morita was instrumental in building-up not only his company but also Japan's international image and global `brand value.' His view of what his company and what Japan overall was capable of producing was far-sighted, to say the least. I want to tell you that the positive sort of `halo effect' surrounding his success even makes the work of a Japanese diplomat, such as myself, much easier throughout the world.''
That halo legacy also makes it easier for journalists, such as myself, to make the case that the current disarray at the highest levels of the Japanese government is very un-morita, to coin a phrase. It's very un-morita for a pair of cabinet officials to have to resign, as they have in recent weeks, or for the government to have to admit that the records of 50 million pensioners have been misplaced. Imagine….
Every miserable bit of this unseemly mess lands - fairly or not - at the feet of Shinzo Abe, the prime minister and so-far sad-sack successor to the political-magician, Junichiro Koizumi. His public approval-ratings have become distinctly dreary just as the government comes up to a huge symbolic-vote test. Should Abe's party lose enough seats in the Upper House so that his government loses face, the PM will have to step down.
But that catastrophic result might not be in Japan's best interest. Abe himself has only been the PM since September and arguably deserves more time to prove himself. His ludicrous gaffe about the wartime comfort-woman issue to the side, this relatively youthful (52) politician has done some very good things, such as repairing ruptured relations with Beijing and Seoul. What's more, an immediate replacement of Morita-quality does not appear visible on the political landscape.
But the chances are - rightly or wrongly - that Abe will have to go. That's what happens when things begin to slide and you don't do enough to halt the rot.
This brings us to the third reason for mentioning the Akio Morita exhibition in Los Angeles. You look at what this Japanese giant did to spray the scent of classy mint all over Japanese products, and you hope that China also has enough ``Moritas'' who now will come forward and save ``Made in China'' from becoming a global synonym for shoddy or (or worse) goods.
It's true that on the mainland right now, they're slaughtering the chickens to warn the monkeys. This - as they say so charmingly in China - is what was behind last week's state execution of China's former chief food and drug regulator. ``This is both to warn its officials and to reassure the international community that Beijing is taking decisive steps to make its food and drugs safe,'' as China expert Minxin Pei puts it in an authoritative essay just distributed by the high-end international syndicate Global Viewpoints.
But simply slaughtering the bad guys won't be enough to repair the brand unless China's good guys get more control over the country's product outflow. In some sense, you see, the work of the Moritas of Japan did more for the country's world image than the country's politicians ever did. Now it is time for the Moritas of China to get to work. What's at stake is not just the bottom line but the country's reputation.
Morita-san understood that well.
Full-time UCLA adjunct professor Tom Plate's new book, ``Confessions of an American Media Man,'' which was published in Asia, is now being published in the U.S. by Marshall Cavendish.