Toshiba to Conduct Voluntary Retirement for Up to 4,000 Employees in Japan

Centered on employees aged 50 and above and general affairs positions

Japanese company Toshiba, which has been struggling with management difficulties, has launched a workforce reduction of up to 4,000 employees within the country.

According to Japanese media such as Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) and Asahi Shimbun, Toshiba announced on the 16th that it will conduct voluntary retirement for up to 4,000 employees across its domestic group.

The number of Toshiba employees in Japan is about 67,000, and 4,000 corresponds to approximately 6%. The voluntary retirement is expected to focus on employees aged 50 and above, mainly in administrative and accounting roles rather than production positions.

Toshiba is a leading Japanese conglomerate but has been in crisis due to accounting fraud issues in 2015 and huge losses from its U.S. nuclear power subsidiary Westinghouse in 2017.

On the same day, Toshiba announced that its net loss for the 2023 fiscal year (April 2023 to March 2024) was 74.8 billion yen (approximately 650 billion KRW). Sales decreased by 2% compared to the previous year, totaling 3.2858 trillion yen (approximately 28.6 trillion KRW).

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Japanese investment fund Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) acquired Toshiba last year through a public stock buyout and voluntarily delisted it in December of the same year. Currently, it is seeking business restructuring and other measures to increase Toshiba’s corporate value for relisting.

For this reason, Japanese media interpret Toshiba’s workforce reduction as an effort to review its cost structure and continue growth. The funds secured through the workforce reduction will be used in growth areas such as decarbonization and quantum technology.

Taro Shimada, president of Toshiba, said at a briefing on the day, "It was a painful decision," and explained, "To sustain the company for the next 100 years, this (workforce reduction) must be done."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.