Akio contributed to the development of the English language more
than once, with product names such as the Walkman. Even the name
of Sony was chosen so as not to sound Japanese. It drew from the Latin
“sonus” and the English “sound” and the expression “Sonny Boy,” an
English expression that was popular in Japan at that time to describe
someone who had a “young and pioneering spirit.” But Akio’s Englishlanguage
phrases designed to express political, economic, and social
ideas have also become part of the global public domain. In addition to
“global localization,” he spoke often of “fate-sharing” to express the
mutual responsibilities of business, government, and labor on the one
hand, or of the United States and Japan on the other. He spoke of
“cooperative competition” between companies. His thinking on this
subject helped lay the philosophical basis for many of today’s partnerships
between companies that are also competitors. He applied this
theory to national economies as well, offering a rational view of how
the United States and Japan could compete and cooperate economically
to our mutual benefit. He did not coin the term “human capital,”