Kazuo Inamori, founder of Japan's Kyocera, dies

Kazuo Inamori, founder of component maker Kyocera Corp and one of Japan's most influential entrepreneurs, has died at the age of 90, the company said on Tuesday.

Inamori, who died of natural causes at his home in Kyoto on Aug. 24, founded Kyocera, then known as Kyoto Ceramic Co., in 1959 as a manufacturer of fine ceramics and grew it into a leading supplier of components for smartphones and automobiles. An advocate of the "amoeba management" method of delegating decision-making to ordinary employees, Inamori took advantage of telecommunications liberalization in the 1980s to build a second heavyweight company, KDDI (OTC:KDDIF) Corp, Japan's second largest wireless carrier. A Buddhist monk, Inamori combined business theory with philosophy, explaining his ideas through a management school and books, and built a following in China. In 2010, he took on another key role when he was asked by the government to run bankrupt Japan Airlines Co, helping it restructure and relist on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2012. Follow Global Economic Developments on Social Media! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Facebook account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Instagram account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Twitter account!