im in two different and fascinating dialogues. One was a suggestion I
had made to him to publish a new book to follow up on his excellent
1986 autobiography, Made in Japan. I had suggested he call this one
“Musings by Morita,” and use it to expound his many interesting and
thought-provoking opinions about a wide range of topics. I had in
mind taking the pleasures of spending a lunch or a dinner conversation
with him and serving them up to the thousands of readers who would
otherwise not get the chance to sample his unique food for thought. I
had interested my friend Jason Epstein at Random House (probably
America’s greatest living editor) in the idea of publishing this book.
Indeed, Random House won a hotly contested auction for the rights
only a few weeks before Akio’s stroke. I think this book would have
been a marvelous legacy. It is a shame it never came to fruition. (And
what a shame it was that his stroke came only days before he was to
have achieved a lifelong dream to take the helm of Japan’s most powerful
business organization, the Keidanren.)