Toshiba plans to lay off 5,000 employees in Japan and focus resources on digital development

On April 17, according to the Nikkei Shimbun, Toshiba is seeking to lay off 5,000 employees, which accounts for about 10% of the total number of employees in its hometown of Japan.

The report pointed out that Toshiba's move may trigger the largest round of layoffs in Japan this year. The company is reducing non-core businesses and will spend about 100 billion yen (IT Home Note: Currently about 4.69 billion yuan) for this one-time expenditure.

The layoffs mainly involve support departments at the head office. Toshiba will review its cost structure within the framework of the investment fund and lay the foundation for "re-growth centered on infrastructure and digital technology."

Toshiba, which has been trying to cut costs across its sprawling businesses and focus on infrastructure and digital technology, is working on a mid-term strategy but has not made any specific decisions, a company representative said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

As a pioneer in DRAM/NAND memory, laptops and rice cookers, Toshiba has been struggling with management mistakes and scandals in recent years. As previously reported, Toshiba, which has been listed for 74 years, was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange in late December last year. Ulrike Schaede, a professor at the University of California, San Diego who studies Japanese business, said Toshiba needs to exit low-margin businesses and develop a stronger business strategy for some of the advanced technologies it owns.