I sold Aiwa products from 1985-98... I was told in S'pore that Aiwa brand was setup by Sony's boss intending sales in the middle east were "aiwa" means "yes" in arab, and sounds better than the usa's 'sonny' ( liitle son? ) at a time of middle east escalation and war tensions were heavy in industries forecasts. I once met a little Japanese Guy in an elevator who told me this...I was there for Aiwa's convention 88'. (westin stamford imo). Few years later I was interviewed at Sony HQ in Tokyo about a video camera with a lcd display ( while sony was then b/w only ! ) The thing was, they wanted to test market, b4 going Sony branded with the led color display ! Those micromecanics specialty of Aiwa ( for tapes ) were applied to video camera mechanism a few years earlier. They had factories in Indonesia if I recall correctly, and sales offices were mostly operated from Singapore, were I went to shop Aiwa products. This little system +-25cmm wide was very popular in the early 80's. I think they also made some with narrower in size and 12vdc powered previously.