“Of course we have to make a profit, but we have to make a profit over the long haul, not just the short term, and that means we must keep investing in research and development.”

It’s difficult to see new projects to fruition.

(Japanese Government believes that if you have a big laboratory with all the latest equipment and good funding it will automatically lead to creativity. It doesn’t work that way.

It has run consistently about 6 percent of sales at Sony – and in service.

Americans make money by playing `money games,’ namely mergers, acquisitions, by simply moving money back and forth … instead of creating and producing goods with some actual value.

Our plan is to lead the public with new products rather than ask them what kind of products they want.

Executives of the company must have the necessary qualities to direct the personnel by showing them the way to do things.

Curiosity is the key to creativity.

You can be totally rational with a machine.

Employees are not guilty; why should they suffer?

I feel it is my fault because I made the decision to hire him.

If we face recession, we should not lay off employees; the company should sacrifice a profit. It’s management’s risk and management’s responsibility.

I often say to my assistants, “Never trust anybody,” but what I mean is that you should never trust someone else to do a job exactly the way you would want it done.

There is no secret ingredient or hidden formula responsible for the success of the best Japanese companies.

We want everybody to have the best facilities in which to work, but we do not believe in posh and impressive private offices.

If management take the risk of hiring them, we have to take the responsibility for them.

The “patron saint” of Japanese quality control, ironically, is an American named W. Edwards Deming, who was virtually unknown in his own country until his ideas of quality control began to make such a big impact on Japanese companies.

In developing countries, lack of infrastructure is a far more serious barrier to trade than tariffs.

It takes years to develop into the kind of human being you want to be.

We have actively worked to share our experience of development with other nations, especially in Asia.

Democracy is an internal subject of the developing society.

We need others. We need others to love and we need to be loved by them. There is no doubt that without it, we too like the infant left alone, would cease to grow, cease to develop, choose madness, and even death.

Japan will finally open a new page for lunar exploration and space development.

Democracy cannot be exported to some other place. This must be a product of internal domestic development in a society.

The more obstacles you face and overcome, the more times you falter and get back on track, the more difficulties you struggle with and conquer, the more resiliency you will naturally develop. There is nothing that can hold you back, if you are resilient.