■ Mobility

On June 16, Sony and Honda Motor (Honda) announced the signing of a joint venture agreement to establish a new company in the area of mobility. We aim to establish the new company, Sony Honda Mobility Inc., by the end of this year, and begin selling EVs and providing services for mobility in 2025.

Yasuhide Mizuno, who was Chief Officer of Honda's Automobile Operations until May, is scheduled to be appointed Representative Director, Chairman and CEO of the new company. From Sony, Izumi Kawanishi, who is in charge of our AI Robotics business, is scheduled to be appointed Representative Director, President and COO.

Going forward, we aim to bring together Honda's cutting-edge environmental and safety technologies, mobility development capabilities, and vehicle body manufacturing technology, with Sony's imaging, sensing, telecommunication, network and entertainment technologies, so that we can contribute to the evolution of mobility.

Visiting the Honda facility in Ohio with Kawanishi-san (2nd from right) in May	With Totoki-san (right) and Kawanishi-san (left) alongside VISION-S

■ Metaverse

Following last month's blog, I was greatly encouraged to receive such extensive feedback from so many of you regarding the metaverse that Sony should aim to create. This included comments such as: "Giving all players the freedom to become creators will expand the creator base and enhance value,""There is also the possibility of a multiverse made up of metaverses based on Communities of Interest,"and "Sony should not aim to create a world that is closed, but rather an open one."

There were also comments emphasizing the importance of information sharing and communication across the Group to deepen collaboration. Along those lines, I have asked Mitomo-san, who is in charge of the Business Incubation Platform, to act as an hub within the Sony Group as we move forward with initiatives relating to the metaverse. Diversity is one of Sony's strengths, and this is also true of the metaverse, which represents a new challenge towards growth. While each business will continue to focus on its own activities, I also look forward to further collaboration between our businesses and employees when necessary, so that we can move forward with this key initiative together.

At the Group Quarterly Meeting (GQM) on June 1, I spoke of how we want to be the brand chosen by creators around the world who create Kando. I believe the metaverse is also something that we can create together with creators. I touched on this point in an interview released through the Sony Corporate Blog last week, so please take a look when you have the chance.

Sony Corporate Blog posted on June 23:
"Creating Sony's Metaverse with Creators"

As always, I look forward to receiving your feedback.