By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Teruaki Aoki, president and chief operating officer of Sony
Electronics Inc., has been at the helm of Sony Corp.'s U.S.
subsidiary for two months. He attended the company's
celebration of the 30th anniversary of Sony Hawaii Corp.
yesterday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Sony expanding
links with isles

The company's efforts here
include a convention and the
Sony Open golf tourney

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Next month, 2,000 Sony dealers will converge on the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island for an upscale convention that is one in a series of events to mark the 30th anniversary of Sony Hawaii Co.

Teruaki Aoki, president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics Inc., the Japanese corporation's U.S. arm, said yesterday that Hawaii has always been important to Sony.

In its first year, 1968, Sony Hawaii did $20,000 worth of business. In the latest fiscal year, which ended March 31, Sony Hawaii had $62 million in sales and now employs 80 people, Aoki told a news conference at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, where the company is holding its annual new products show for dealers.

Aoki said Sony also sees Hawaii as an ideal place to show off its products to the public because of the large numbers of tourists from all around the United States and other countries.

In January, Sony will sponsor the first of four Sony Open golf tournaments at the Waialae Country Club, having taken over that event from United Airlines.

Aoki has held the top U.S. position for Sony Corp. for only two months, most of which has been spent visiting the U.S. factories, research and development facilities, and wholesale offices. He said Sony's U.S. electronics sales last year passed $10 billion for the first time, reporting for about 28 percent of Sony's $58 billion in worldwide sales .

He said he intends to coordinate all U.S. units into a distinct U.S. entity.

"Until now it (Sony Electronic) was functioning as an extended arm of Sony Corp. in Japan. Even R&D is an extension of the corporate lab in Tokyo," Aoki said.

The U.S. market will be for connected and integrated digital electronic services, he said, linking computers, television and radio broadcasting, cellular telephones, the Internet, video recorders, home entertainment systems and the Internet.

The U.S. operation can best develop that by operating largely independently of Tokyo, he said.