In today's blog, I would like to share my thoughts and reflections on my recent visit to the UK, Italy, Israel, and Belgium prior to the Japanese Golden Week holiday. While my schedule was a demanding one that took me to four countries in a week, this business trip was a true One Sony experience, spanning almost the entire breadth of our business domains - from electronics to entertainment including games, as well as design, semiconductors, and medical.

■ UK

My first stop was the UK. As soon as I arrived, I was on my way to a One Sony Management Dinner, attended by the management team from our Music and Music Publishing, Motion Pictures/TV, Game & Network Services, and Electronics businesses throughout the UK and Europe. As with the One Sony Management Dinner we held in February in China, the aim of gathering was to trigger opportunities to turn our diversity into strength, by having colleagues from across the group get to know each other more closely. Indeed, many of the participants told me that even though their offices are closely located, opportunities for daily interaction are limited, so they found this to be an extremely productive event. Europe is another of our locations where we have many outstanding teams devoted to creating various content such as games, music, TV shows, and film, and this visit underlined the great potential we have at Sony for collaboration and synergy among these creative teams and individuals.

One Sony Europe Management Dinner
(click image to show names)

The next day, we held an all-hands Town Hall meeting at Sony Europe, where Furumi-san has just taken up his role as President, effective April 1. I shared my expectations for our consumer business including mobile, broadcast and professional, our medical B2B (solutions) business, and the semiconductor business. This was followed by a vibrant Q&A session. Following the Town Hall meeting, I visited each of our Entertainment companies to receive updates on the latest regarding our business in Europe.

With Furumi-san and everyone at Sony Europe.

■ Italy

Next, I made my way to Italy to the Milan Design Week, where the Creative Center was exhibiting again this year. This event, which takes place at the same time as the Milan Furniture Fair, attracts as many as 1 million visitors each year, and many companies and designers open exhibitions all over the city of Milan. Sony's theme this year was "Affinity in Autonomy," and our exhibit, created in collaboration with the R&D Center, envisioned a world where humans and robots coexist in harmony. Although my stay in Italy lasted less than a day, I was also able to fit in visits to the Google and Lexus exhibits, and felt invigorated by this opportunity to connect with the design community.

■ Israel

In the afternoon, I flew to Israel to visit Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (SSS) subsidiary Altair, together with SSS President, Shimizu-san. The Altair team are developing high-performance, energy efficient LTE modem chips for IoT devices.

With the employees of Altair.
On the left, next to me is Oded Melamed, the company's president.

Israel as a country has a strong focus on startup incubation, and many new technology ventures like Altair are emerging. During my visit, I had the chance to meet with Mobileye, an autonomous driving solutions business that uses SSS image sensors, and three tech startups working in the image sensor domain.

I rode the car pictured above on a self-driving trial on public roads and highways in central Jerusalem, and was astonished by its almost human-like handling. I should note that although there is no driver in the picture you see here, I was accompanied by a human driver when we conducted the actual trial.

■ Belgium

My final stop was Belgium, where I visited SSS subsidiary Sony Depthsensing Solutions (SDS) and Sony Imaging Products & Solutions (SIPS) subsidiary eSaturnus.

SDS develops indirect-time-of-flight (iToF) sensors and other 3D sensor systems. The iToF sensors have now been featured in high-end models introduced by leading smartphone manufacturers over the past year. Sony already holds the leading global market share for CMOS image sensors, and I announced last May that as part of our Corporate Direction that we would also be targeting to be No. 1 globally in sensing. As such, I am counting on the continued effort and dedication of everyone involved in this area.

At the Town Hall meeting with SDS employees	With SDS President Daniel Van Nieuwenhove

eSaturnus is a Belgian company that Sony acquired in 2016, which provides highly advanced clinical video-over-IP solutions to hospitals and other medical facilities. By combining SIPS in Atsugi's imaging and video technologies with eSaturnus' expertise in software and solutions development, we have created an opportunity to transition from a business selling medical cameras, monitors, and other standalone hardware, towards a recurring business model centered on software and services. eSaturnus' solution is also an embodiment of our pursuit in "Reality" and "Real-Time". Last fiscal year, Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden, whose Nobel Assembly awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, chose to deploy eSaturnus' technology, and I look forward to the continued growth of this business in the future.

A product demonstration at the eSaturnus' mock operating room. Through a simple touch panel navigation,
high-resolution footage of the operation can be displayed in real-time.

With the employees of eSaturnus. Next to me, center right is Thomas Koninckx (Founder & CEO),
and center left is Bob Koninckx (Founder & CTO).

Although this was a whirlwind trip, it provided a great opportunity to see for myself the limitless potential that exists for value creation through diversity - from collaborations within the Sony Group, to contributions from the newest additions to the Sony family, and alliances with external companies drawn to Sony's signature technologies. To everyone I had the pleasure of meeting during this trip, and all of you at Sony Group companies around the world: let's continue to harness the power of One Sony and endeavor to create new value.