During Sony Corporation's quarterly investor conference call retiring CEO Kazu Hirai talked about his new role as Chairman of the Board of Sony Corporation under the leadership of current Chief Financial Officer Kenichiro Yoshida.

Hirai-san explained that while Yoshida-san will be the leader among them, but Sony's board of directors asked him to remain in a support role for the new CEO and he will do so as long as he is needed.

Specifically, Hirai-san continued, he may still be able to provide advice in the gaming and network businesses (on top of the entertainment business), and he may be present and attending different events and meetings in a variety of functions.

That being said, he stressed further that he will be assisting Yoshida-san, and "making contributions" as a member of the board.

The change in management announced earlier today will become effective as of April 1st, matching the beginning of fiscal year 2018. Yoshida-san promised to reveal a new mid-range corporate plan in a  strategy meeting shortly after the reveal of Sony's full-year results in April.

Considering Kaz Hirai's past tenure as boss of Sony Computer Entertainment (from 2007 to 2011, after working at the company for twelve years), it's certainly appropriate for him to provide advice on the direction of the business. Given his charisma, it'll be interesting to see how active his role will be going forward.