Panasonic was founded by Konosuke Matsushita in Japan in 1918 and was originally known as Matsushita. Konosuke initially operated from a rented two-story house where he used the first floor to manufacture electric devices.

Panasonic soon out grew the upstairs rooms and had to move to a large unit in 1920 which enabled them to manufacture more products. Their products were soon appreciated for their innovation, design, quality and value. One of the first items that they manufactured was an adaptor that allowed 2 light bulbs to be plugged into one socket which was the only one of its type at the time. By 1922 Panasonic had to move to a larger factory because of the success of the products that they manufactured.

In 1923 Konosuke Matsushita designed a bullet shaped bicycle lamp that had a battery life that was ten times longer than a conventional light. The light was a very popular and successful product.

Panasonics innovation continued and in 1927 they manufactured an affordable iron that was electric.

As radios became more popular in the 1930s Panasonic produced a 3 tube radio in 1931, which was known as the R31 that won awards for its design. Panasonic created unique design features that they patented and then permitted competing manufactures to use to help support growth of the acceptance and take up of radio.

In 1952 Panasonic had designed a rectangular cathode ray tube (CRT) which was an industry first. Up to this point television tubes had been round but they soon all became rectangular. They incorporated their rectangular tube in to an affordable black and white television. Throughout the 1950s Panasonic also researched ways of recording video.

By 1960 Panasonic had produced their first mass manufactured television that had a colour picture tube.

During 1991 Panasonic manufactured the first rewriteable optical disc recorder for television images which was a forerunner to the DVD recorder. They also made a commitment to environmental responsibility in 1991 with an environmental charter.

Panasonic now hold over 40000 patents in Japan and a further 54000 outside of Japan. They produce in excess of 15000 products which distribute to virtually every country in the world. Panasonic employ 306000 people within 600 companies and by value they are the fifth biggest electronic manufacturer in the world. During 2007 they filed 2007 patents which were more patents than any other company in the world.

To begin with Konosukes Panasonic company and its employees strived to find ways of designing and manufacturing top quality products that provided solutions to everyday problems of the average person. This was done by questioning the standard way of doing things and finding ways of manufacturing products that were better than products that already existed. This philosophy has been applied throughout Panasonic history and today Panasonic still applies these same principals in every product that they manufacture.

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