Sony CEO: Why the Yen Decline Isn't Helping Us
The weakness in the Japanese yen - which has depreciated 12 percent against the U.S. dollar in the past three months - has had almost no impact on Sony's businesses thus far, according to, Kazuo Hirai, CEO of the electronics giant.
"With the dollar-yen exchange rate, the impact has been fairly neutral, because Sony has a lot of dollar-based costs," Hirai told CNBC on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress.
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However, Hirai, said Sony stands to benefit more from the weakness in the yen against the euro, explaining that the company has fewer costs denominated in the single currency. The yen has fallen 13 percent against the euro over the past three months.
The yen began its rapid descent in November when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe started calling on the central bank to ease monetary policy more aggressively. Sony's Tokyo-listed shares have risen more than 30 percent over this period.
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Hirai added that much of the slide in the Japanese currency last year took place after the key year-end holiday selling season, and thus has had a minimal impact on the company's sales.
"A lot of the business was already done for this fiscal year, so there's no impact there of taking advantage of the weaker yen, but going forward into the next fiscal year and next holiday season, that's a different story."
Mobile Comeback
Hirai added that Sony, which unveiled its latest Xperia tablet at the Barcelona-based trade fair, is stepping up its focus on the mobile segment – which has so far been dominated by Samsung and Apple.
"The three core businesses that we need to really start focusing (on): one is the mobile space including smartphones, the other being video gaming and network services, the third being digital imaging," he said.
Last week Sony unveiled its highly anticipated PlayStation 4, its first video game console in seven years, which is likely to hit shops before the holiday season in December.
