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The enthusiasm with which Totsuko products were being greeted comes
across in the report on Morita's two trips to the US during 1957 and Ibuka's
trip to Europe.
Ibuka was awarded a special currency permit by the Japanese government
in recognition of Totsuko's radio and tape recorder export earnings. For
over two months, from July 30 to October 4, he traveled around the major
countries of Europe, touring factories and studying the technology of the
European electronics industry. En route, he was encouraged by finding the
TR-63 in some unexpected places. In Berlin he met Ohga, who had signed on as
a part-time adviser with Totsuko after graduating from Tokyo University of
Fine Arts and Music. While still in Totsuko's employ, Ohga had been invited
to study at a music school in Munich by Professor H sch and was then
furthering his singing studies at Berlin's Hochschule fr Musik.
Ohga's occasional and long letters from Berlin devoted so much space to
discussing German tape recorders and cameras that his friends back home
wondered when he had time for music. But that was not all. Whenever Ibuka
sent their newest transistor radio or tape recorder to Ohga, they had to
brace themselves for a barrage of complaints. They were astonished at his
capacity for faultfinding. But it was entirely thanks to this faultfinder
that the Totsuko transistor radio achieved a burst of European publicity
shortly after its introduction in Germany.
In the summer of 1954, when Ohga left for Germany, there was only a
single prototype radio in the Technical Division; and neither the "UN
building TR-52" nor the TR-55 existed yet. The latter was completed in June
of 1956, and a set reached Ohga in July.
" I never dreamed I'd see a radio in such a smart cabinet, and so
soon," thought Ohga as he hurried to show it off (and sing the praises of
Totsuko's products) to his friend Michiko Tanaka. Tanaka had been living in
Germany since before WWII. Graduating before Ohga, she too was an alum of
the voice department of Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. During the
period after the war, when there was no Japanese consulate in Berlin, she
gave her undying assistance to Japanese musicians who came to study in
Germany, becoming a kind of unofficial ambassador.
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The Japanese transistor radio Ohga had brought to show her seemed to
take her fancy, and she had him lend it to her for a while. Later she asked
him to have more radios rushed from Japan. She had been showing the product
to people in her circle and had already received 20 orders. Though Ohga
joked that he was not a sales agent, he could not refuse Michiko Tanaka. He
prevailed on Morita to send a number of sets. Tanaka's friends spread the
word, and the fame of "Sony, the first transistor radio" grew rapidly in
Berlin.
As Ibuka did not speak a word of German, he was delighted to have Ohga
as his guide. A particularly valuable experience was the week's journey that
the two made by car from Germany through Holland and Belgium. Wherever they
went, Ohga proudly proclaimed himself a musician. Yet at the Philips tape
recorder plant in Holland, he would become so engrossed in detailed
questions and arguments of his own that he would neglect to translate for
Ibuka. Their hosts were baffled by this surprising musician, and even Ibuka
was in awe of him. They made a strange pair.
Ibuka's tour had begun in Scandinavia, where he was disappointed to find
the TR-63 regarded as little more than a toy. But his weeklong travels with
Ohga reassured him that the little TR-63 had many admirers in other parts of
Europe. As the Japanese proverb says, "So many countries, so many
customs." Much to his surprise, too, he noted that electrical appliance
stores not only had radios, but Soni-Tapes on display as well.
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