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JVC believed that an open standard worked in the best interest of the consumer, as sharing the format among competitors without licensing the technology was better for the consumer.

To prevent the MITI from adopting Betamax, JVC made an attempt to have other companies accept VHS, and thereby work against Sony and the MITI.

It was a major key to have Matsushita on board because Matsushita was Japan's largest electronics manufacturer at the time.

JVC succeeded in persuading Matsushita to back the VHS format because Matsushita was afraid to allow Sony to become a leader, and Betamax could only record one hour of video.

Matsushita's backing of JVC persuaded Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Sharp to back the VHS standard as well.

Sony's release of its Betamax unit to the Japanese market in 1975 placed further pressure on the MITI to side with the company.

However, the collaboration of JVC and its partners was much stronger, and eventually lead the MITI to drop its push for an industry standard.