That sensory rigor became his hallmark. By the 1990s, he had risen to head Sony’s core audio and video divisions, but his true test was yet to come. Most histories of Sony focus on Ken Kutaragi, the "Father of the PlayStation." But Ibuki was the godfather. As deputy president in the late 1990s, he saw that the gaming division was bleeding money due to a catastrophic supply chain error. The PlayStation 2 was a technical marvel—a DVD player and a game console in one—but its custom "Emotion Engine" chip was failing in mass production.
Ibuki answered without blinking: "You fire processes , not people. Then you ask the survivors to build a new Sony." haruki ibuki
His first move was brutal: a restructuring plan that cut —a staggering number for a Japanese company that once promised lifetime employment. Factories in Japan were closed. The AIBO robot dog, a beloved pet-project of the engineering division, was euthanized. That sensory rigor became his hallmark
But Ibuki’s greatest legacy is not a number on a spreadsheet. It is a philosophy he called —"Reconstructing Emotion." As deputy president in the late 1990s, he