In 1918 Konosuke Matsushita set up a company that he called Matsushita. At first he traded from the upstairs rooms of his two storey house where he manufactured electric products. Many years later the products were branded Panasonic.

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.

This was followed by Panasonics first electric iron which was produced at an affordable price in 1927.

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.

Throughout the 30s and 40s Panasonic continued to innovate and manufacturer quality products. By 1952 they had designed the first monochrome television to have a rectangular picture tube at a price that people could afford. After this innovation all television tubes were rectangular. During the 1950s was investigating methods of recording video signals.

Panasonic were manufacturing their first colour CRT TVs which they were mass producing by 1960.

Panasonic was the first company in the world to make a rewriteable optical disc recorder that recorded video signals in 1991. They also created a charter in which they committed to protecting the environment.

Since its inception in 1918 Panasonic has grown into a company that now has three hundred and six thousand employees spread over its six hundred companies and is now the fifth largest manufacturer of electronic items in the world. They also have over forty thousand patents within Japan and fifty four thousand patents out of Japan. Their product range extends to over fifteen thousand products which they sell all around the world. In 2007 they registered a larger number of patents than any other company in the world.

Throughout its history Panasonic has innovated with designs that improve on other products that are available in the market. Their products are always high quality and provide solutions to everyday problems for ordinary peoples life. By not accepting the normal ways of doing things Panasonic has consistently produced ground breaking products that are better than others in the market.

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