The co-founder of the company, Morita had been in failing health since a stroke in 1993. He died at a Tokyo hospital Sunday morning of pneumonia, said Sony spokesman Aldo Liguori.

Morita co-founded Sony in a bombed-out department store after World War II. He was the last of a generation of Japanese industrialists that included car maker Soichiro Honda and electronics rival Konosuke Matsushita. Under Morita's guidance, Sony was instrumental in changing Japan's image from a maker of slipshod products to a world leader in high-quality automobiles and electronics. In the process, his company became a multi-billion dollar conglomerate.

A native of the western Japanese city of Nagoya, Morita retired as Sony's chairman in 1994. A year earlier, he had suffered a stroke that left him weakened and in a wheelchair. He stayed on as honorarychairman, with current chairman Norio Ohga appointed as his successor. The tanned, snowy-haired Morita, who took up water-skiing in his 60s, also pioneered new behavior for corporate Japan. He pushed his engineers to take risks with new products and criticized lavishly paid American executives. He caused a stir in 1989 by co-authoring ``The Japan That Can Say `No' '' with current Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, then refusing to authorize an English translation. In it, Morita criticized US corporate culture as overindulgent. He also warned that America must revitalize its electronics industry by investing in research and development.

In the late 1980s, Morita called for many of the economic reforms now being carried out by Japan's government, but he reportedly declined an offer to become foreign minister in August 1993.

Even without Morita at the helm, Sony continues to lead the world in electronics and computer entertainment.