Aiwa - the original Aiwa company was founded in 1951 and was a leading manufacturer of audio equipment such as speakers, radios, and stereo systems. After stagnation in the latter half of the 1990s, Aiwa was acquired by Sony in 2002 and then unsuccessfully relaunched as a low-cost brand until it was shut down in 2008. Aiwa was relaunched as an independent company in Japan in 2017 by Towada and focuses primarily on audio equipment manufacturing and brand licensing.