Japan’s Sony to ‘cut 10,000 jobs’

Sony Corporation has announced plans to cutting 10,000 jobs, about six per cent of its global workforce, according to media reports.

The Nikkei newspaper said on Monday that half of the latest round of job cuts would come from consolidating the firm’s chemicals ad small and midsize LCD operations.

Sony said last month it would sell part of a chemicals and devices subsidiary that makes films and adhesives used in televisions, cameras and mobile phones to state-backed Development Bank of Japan.

The Nikkei said it was not clear how many of the cuts would take place in Japan or overseas.

Sony may also request that its seven executive directors who served through the fiscal year to end-March, including Stringer, who is now chairman, return their bonuses, the Nikkei said without citing a source.

Sony declined to comment on the report.

The cuts come as new CEO Kazuo Hirai comes under pressure to return the Japanese consumer electronics and entertainment company to profit after four years in the red.

Downsizing

The job cuts are the latest layoffs in Japan where companies from NEC Corp and Sumco Corp to Daiwa Securities are cutting costs to revamp their businesses.

Sony itself announced in December 2008 cuts of 16,000 workers after the global financial crisis hit demand for its electronics products, but it still has not made a profit since then.

As of the end of March of 2011, Sony had 168,200 employees on a consolidated basis, according to its website.

The company, which expects a $2.7bn (220bn yen) net loss for the fiscal year that just ended, said last month that Hirai would keep direct charge of Sony’s ailing TV business in a reorganisation of the company’s business structure.

Hirai, who formally took over as chief executive from Howard Stringer on April 1, is set to brief on the company’s business plan on Thursday.