The question of who should be credited with inventing the Walkman—or the portable cassette player—remains a matter of debate. Andreas Pavel has long claimed to be the inventor of the cassette Walkman. However, according to Sony’s official narrative, the inspiration came to Masaru Ibuka during a business trip, as he used a portable recorder to pass the time. The actual leader of the team that developed the first generation of the Walkman was Kozo Ohsone, who later served as Sony’s Executive Vice President from 1994 to 1996. Another key figure was Shizuo Takashino, who became Sony’s Chief Representative in China starting in 2005 and later served as Chairman of Sony (China) Co., Ltd. For over a decade, he remained Sony’s top executive in China. Because of his direct involvement in the development of the first Walkman, some Chinese media have referred to him as the “Father of the Walkman.” Sony maintains that the invention of the Walkman had nothing to do with either Andreas Pavel or William Haas. As early as 1969, Sony had already developed a compact and robust portable recorder, the TC-50 (see Fig. 16.1), which gained fame after participating in the Apollo Moon landing mission. According to Sony’s official website, the true prototype for the Walkman was the Pressman, a compact recording device developed in 1977. The name “Pressman” referenced the media industry, as it was originally designed as a tool for journalists to record interviews. To expand its functionality, Sony engineers modified the Pressman to create a prototype capable only of playback, not recording. The audio quality of this prototype impressed the engineers so much that they decided to adapt it into a dedicated music playback device.