Former Sony chief Idei ups influence in China with consulting role at video game maker Youzu

Nobuyuki Idei, the former chairman and group chief executive of Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony, is now lending his expertise to China's burgeoning video games industry as a consultant for Shenzhen-listed Youzu Interactive.

His formal appointment as a one-man think tank for Youzu, a developer and publisher of online and mobile games, was announced by the company on Sunday.

The new consultant job at Youzu marked the third high-profile role landed by Idei with a publicly listed mainland Chinese company since he left Sony in 2005.

He has served as an independent director at Baidu, China's leading online search services provider, since June 2007. He also joined Lenovo Group, the world's largest personal computer supplier, as an independent non-executive director in September 2011.

In a statement, Youzu chairman and chief executive Lin Qi said Idei is expected to assist the company in "creating and implementing a new plan for the roll-out of the firm's global deployment strategy".

That strategy included extending Youzu's reach into the movie industry and other related sectors, as well as collaboration with young entrepreneurs in mainland China and Japan.