Like many of the global manufacturing giants started during the 20th century and continuing to lead their industries into the 21st century, Panasonic exists because of the vision of one man, Konosuke Matsushita. Part 1 of this PhotographyTalk.com article presents the early years of Panasonic to the beginning of World War II. With the outbreak of the war, the Japanese government compelled Matsushita’s and his company to build warships and airplanes.

When the war ended, much of Matsushita Electric Industrial Company’s facilities were destroyed, requiring extensive re-building. The government of the Allied occupation forces mistakenly identified the company as one to be dissolved into separate entities. It took Matsushita until 1950, after almost one hundred negotiating sessions with the Allied powers, before all post-war restrictions were lifted, and he could remain in control of his business.

Matsushita’s next vision was the need for his company to enter the global marketplace. Before it could succeed there, however, he knew his employees were lacking essential electronics technical knowledge. To address this deficiency, he entered into a technical cooperation agreement with Philips of the Netherlands during 1952, creating a joint venture known as Matsushita Electronics Corporation. Then, Matsushita took the biggest step by starting Matsushita Electronics Corporation of America, and opening a sales office in New York City during 1959.

The 1960s saw a huge improvement in the economy of Japan and the world, leading MEC to develop the first explosion of electrical and electronic products, such as console stereos and speakers, a fully automatic washing machine and a console TV. Even with the retirement of Matsushita during 1961, the company forged ahead, using its innovative skills to produce air conditioners, color television sets, microwave ovens, cassette recorders and VCRs.

Breakthroughs in video technology are what would propel Matsushita Electronics Corporation even further into the global marketplace. The company had been researching video since 1953, bringing the first professional and consumer models to the market during 1964. Then, Panasonic and one of its subsidiaries, Japan Victor Corporation (JVC), created the VHS recording format. It would become the standard (beating Sony’s Betamax format) primarily because the various VHS product manufacturers agreed to make all their equipment compatible with the VHS format, which Sony was unable to do. The next savvy move by the leaders at Panasonic was to negotiate deals with RCA, General Electric and other major U.S. consumer electronics manufacturers, further ensuring that the VHS format would dominate in the U.S. Panasonic built 10 million VCRs by 1983, and within four years (1987) had established VHS as the winning format.

Panasonic has pioneered many of the developments in the electronic technologies of the last 30 years that are taken for granted today. During the early 1980s, the company saw the future of mobile telephones; and, by 1996, introduced the first mobile phone weighing only 3.5 ounces (100g). The company also took the lead in digital television and the set-top boxes required to receive digital broadcast signals. Panasonic’s first products in this line were released during October 1998. The company was also instrumental in making panel TV’s much thinner, with a 50-inch model and a surface less than an inch thick introduced during 2008. That same year, the company presented the world with the largest panel TV, a 150-inch model.

Digital photography is a newer product line at Panasonic, with the first LUMIX digital cameras available for purchase during 2001. During the last 10 years, Panasonic has vigorously carved a niche for itself in the camera market by developing these innovations first:

Optical image stabilization system for compact digital cameras (2003).
Wide-angle lenses with an EA lens on super-thin compact cameras (2006).
Intelligent Auto (iA) mode (2007).
LUMIX G mirror-less structure, interchangeable lens system camera (2008).

Panasonic also continues to have a major impact on the development of HD video recording, 3D image processing and digital networking.

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