■ Sony Group Senior HR Leadership Team Meeting and Sony University/Singularity University

On January 22, I participated in the "Sony Group Senior HR Leadership Team Meeting" and met with some of you at the forefront of our HR organizations across the Sony Group. Then in February, I had the opportunity to engage with senior level global management through the "Sony University Executive Global Leadership Program (EGLP)" on the 19th, followed by young and mid-career talents on the 26th, taking part in a training program called "Singularity University x Sony." This open and interactive exchange enabled me to hear real examples from Group employees in a range of positions, regarding their day-to-day efforts in getting closer to employees, users, creators and artists. Hearing directly from management on topics such as the challenges they face on a daily basis, as well as ideas and proposals from our young employees for future initiatives, is also a great learning experience for me, and always a source of inspiration.

Engaging in dialogue at EGLP

Group photo with the participants of "Singularity University x Sony"

■ Stakeholders

As I look around the world today, I see a shift from "shareholder capitalism," which prioritizes shareholder returns above all else and used to be the norm in corporate management, to "stakeholder capitalism," which values a company's relationships with all its stakeholders. In my previous blog, I mentioned that Sony is supporting the "Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics," released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is also in line with this trend.

Sony's major stakeholders are our customers, shareholders, and employees. There are also our business partners, suppliers, national and regional communities, and beyond that, the world. Sony's Purpose is to fill that world with emotion. Or to put it another way, the world is a place where we realize our Purpose through our businesses. And the Earth is where approximately 7.8 billion people^* worldwide live.

* Source: UNFPA "State of the World Population Report 2020"

■ The Planet Earth as a Stakeholder

In the past, the Earth seemed an entity that exists beyond our stakeholders, but when we start to think in this way, we begin to see the Earth itself, in a broader sense, as an important stakeholder.

Last year, I had the opportunity to meet Kimiya Yui, an astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and he told me that when he looked at the Earth from outer space, he could sense how thin the atmosphere is, and how frail the Earth. Moreover, our planet is not the "Mother Earth" that protects us, as much as something that itself needs to be protected. This conversation left a lasting impression on me.

©JAXA/NASA Image of the Earth taken by JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui

We must seriously consider our responsibility as a company to reducing our environmental impact on our important stakeholder, the Earth, and recognize the contributions we can make through the added value our technologies and businesses create. In order to fulfill these responsibilities, it will be vital to steadily implement plans based on frameworks such as Sony's "Road to Zero" long-term vision, and the "RE100" global initiative. I also believe there are a number of unique ways in which Sony can contribute by applying our technologies. These include the use of decentralized sensing, which I explained at the ESG Briefing in September last year, and taking on the challenge of developing microgrids^* for the future.

* Small-scale, decentralized, autonomous power systems that do not rely on large-scale power plants to supply electricity.

This month marks three full years since I was appointed President of Sony in April 2018. The title of my first blog that I posted at that time was "Sony and the Planet Earth," and in this, my 47th blog post, I talked about "The Planet Earth as a Stakeholder." As we welcome the start of a new fiscal year next month, and the launch of a new corporate structure, let's look to the future with renewed focus on how we can fulfill our responsibilities and contribute to our important stakeholder, the Earth. I look forward to thinking about this with you all, as we move our business forward together.

Thank you for all your feedback in response to my previous blog, including your thoughts and ideas on "getting closer to people." As always, again I look forward to hearing from you.