Shareholders of Sony Corp. on Wednesday approved a new management team led by Howard Stringer, who pledged to turn around the company's struggling consumer electronics business.

"It is my responsibility," the 63-year-old American told the annual meeting in Tokyo attended by a record 6,449 shareholders.

The journalist-turned-businessman replaces Nobuyuki Idei as chief executive officer to become the first non-Japanese to head the consumer electronics and entertainment juggernaut, which has lost its dominance over the past several years.

In fiscal 2004, the loss created by its electronics business widened by five times to 34.31 billion yen, dragged down by weak sales of portable audio players and cathode-ray tube TVs.

The dismal results forced the firm to give up its target of reaching a 10 percent operating profit margin during fiscal 2006.

"We were not thorough enough in forecasting changes surrounding the electronics business," Idei told the shareholders, who voiced frustration with Sony's recent performance.

While Idei and the other departing board members responded rather defensively to the shareholders' criticisms, the new management team was more forthcoming about Sony's problems.

"I do feel a growing gap between the management and the frontline workers," said Ryoji Chubachi, who replaced Kunitake Ando as president Wednesday.

"We will make efforts to fill that gap by dialogue."

Stringer meanwhile also implied the firm remains committed to the Blu-ray disc format as the choice for next-generation DVDs.