SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
                        Washington, D.C.



LITIGATION RELEASE NO.    15832  / August 5, 1998

ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING ENFORCEMENT
RELEASE NO. 1062 / August 5, 1998

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION V. SONY CORPORATION, Case
No.  1:98CV01935 (D.D.C.) (filed August 5, 1998)


     On August 5, 1998, the Commission issued a settled
cease-and-desist order against Sony Corporation ("Sony") and
Sumio Sano ("Sano") and filed a related settled complaint
against Sony in the United States District Court for the
District of Columbia.

     In the settled cease-and-desist order, the Commission
found that Sony, a Japanese corporation whose securities
trade on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American
Depositary Receipts, violated the periodic reporting
provisions applicable to foreign private issuers in Section
13(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 13a-
1, 13a-16, and 12b-20 thereunder, and that Sano, who was a
director of Sony and the General Manager of its Capital
Market and Investor Relations Division during the relevant
period, was a cause of Sony's violations.  Specifically, the
Commission found that during the four months preceding
Sony's November 1994 writedown of approximately $2.7 billion
of goodwill associated with the acquisition of its Sony
Pictures subsidiary, Sony made inadequate disclosures about
the nature and extent of Sony Pictures' net losses and their
impact on the consolidated results Sony was reporting.
Those inadequate disclosures were contained in two current
reports furnished to the Commission on Form 6-K, which
included copies of quarterly earnings releases issued by
Sony, and in the Management's Discussion and Analysis
sections of Sony's annual report to shareholders for the
fiscal year ended March 31, 1994, and its annual report
filed with the Commission on Form 20-F for the same fiscal
year.  The Commission also noted that during the relevant
period, Sony did not report the results of Sony Pictures as
a separate industry segment, but instead reported the
combined results of Sony Pictures and Sony's profitable
music business as a single "entertainment" segment, which
had the effect of obscuring the losses sustained by Sony
Pictures.

     The Commission ordered Sony to cease and desist from
committing or causing violations of the Exchange Act
provisions cited above, and ordered Sano to cease and desist
from causing such violations.  The Commission also ordered
Sony to comply with three undertakings:  (i)  to engage an
independent auditor to examine its MD&A presentation for the
fiscal year ending March 31, 1999; (ii) to adopt and
implement procedures and practices to ensure that Sony's
Chief Financial Officer will be designated henceforth as the
officer primarily responsible for ensuring that Sony's
public financial disclosures are accurate and otherwise in
compliance with applicable legal and accounting
requirements; and (iii) to continue to apply FAS 131, which
provides guidance relating to industry segment reporting,
for purposes of reporting its financial results.  In
settling the proceeding, Sony and Sano consented to issuance
of the Commission's order without admitting or denying the
matters set forth therein.

     In its Complaint filed in federal court against Sony,
the Commission alleged the same violations as it found in
its administrative order, and requested the Court to impose
a civil penalty pusuant to Exchange Act Section 21(d)(3).
In settling the case, Sony consented to entry of a final
judgment imposing a $1 million penalty without admitting or
denying the allegations in the Commission's complaint.  [SEC
v. Sony Corporation, Civil Action No. 1:98CV01935 (D.D.C.
1998)]