Makoto Kogure is in the product safety hot seat at Sony, following Dell and Apple's battery recalls last month.

Following the massive battery recalls announced by Apple and Dell recently, Sony has handed a senior executive responsibility for ensuring product safety in the future.

Makoto Kogure, formerly head of Sony's television business, was appointed quality control director last week.

According to reports, product safety was previously the responsibility of Sony president Ryoji Chubachi. A spokesperson for Sony Europe explained that the company already has similar senior positions for product compliance and environmental affairs.

Sony's reputation has taken a battering in recent weeks, after its battery cells were blamed for a series of overheating incidents involving laptops. Dell announced in mid-August that it is recalling 4.1 million batteries. Apple's recall of 1.8 million batteries was announced two weeks ago.

The recalls have forced Sony's share price down, and will probably cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

Graeme Wearden from ZDNet UK reported from London.