Toshiba cutting thousands of jobs as restructuring continues

Toshiba is the latest company to confirm widespread job cuts as part of a comprehensive restructuring plan under its new ownership.

A report from Reutersclaims the Japanese giant will cut up to 4,000 workers, representing around 6% of its total workforce.

The news comes just months after Toshiba was acquired by a consortium led by the private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) in a deal worth around $13 billion.

Toshiba confirms job cuts

In addition to the layoffs, Toshiba has announced plans to relocate its offices from central Tokyo to Kawasaki – a separate city that forms part of the Greater Tokyo area – in order to rein in its costs.

The company said that the changes would help it return to “what Toshiba should be,” setting itself a goal of achieving a 10% return on sale, or operating margin, by financial year 2026.

In its announcement, Toshiba revealed a frightening downward trend on profitability following a significant upward spike between 2015 and now, alluding to “becom[ing] lean and strong” this year, and “prepar[ing] for medium- to long-term growth” next year before realizing that growth in the successive years.

Toshiba recently announced a 76% drop in net sales between 2022 and 2023, and a more concerning 201% drop in net income during the same period.

Moreover, the restructuring comes amidst a broader trend of job cuts by major Japanese companies. Recent announcements, include workforce reductions by photocopier manufacturer Konica Minolta, cosmetics giant Shiseido, and electronics company Omron.

The trend isn’t just limited to Japan, with 84,000 tech redundancies tracked (via layoffs.fyi) this calendar year alone. Google has been a repeat offender this year, with the likes of Apple, Amazon and Microsoft also cutting headcounts.