Panasonic Holdings to cut about 10,000 jobs
Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Holdings plans to shed about 10,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its global workforce. The move is part of a drastic overhaul focusing on unprofitable businesses.
Officials say about 5,000 jobs will be slashed both domestically and overseas this fiscal year through measures such as an early retirement program. The cuts will mainly be in sales and administration.
Panasonic aims to put more resources into AI-based services for corporate customers.
The firm is considering selling its TV business and breaking up a unit that specializes in home appliances, air conditioners and lighting.
Speaking on Friday, CEO Kusumi Yuki said he wants to improve profits by more than a billion dollars through fiscal 2026.
Kusumi said he wants to make the company "leaner, more efficient and more resilient" to the rapidly changing business environment.
And he said he will give up about 40 percent of his annual compensation this fiscal year.
Panasonic also announced its earnings forecast for the current fiscal year. Sales are expected to fall by more than 7 percent to about 53.7 billion dollars. Net profit will fall over 15 percent to 2.1 billion dollars.
Officials say the figures do not take into account the potential impact of sweeping tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kyodo News
18 minutes ago
- Kyodo News
FOCUS: China's "panda diplomacy" in focus as zero moment may come in Japan
By Keita Nakamura, KYODO NEWS - 6 minutes ago - 09:38 | World, All, Japan China's "panda diplomacy" is drawing renewed attention with Japan's first zero giant panda moment in over half a century approaching, amid an intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry that could provide an incentive for Beijing to stabilize its oft-strained ties with Tokyo. China's decisions on leasing the bear species abroad are usually revealed in high-level bilateral talks. Foreign affairs experts say a new loan may be announced late fall this year during a possible visit by a Chinese political leader to Japan, though they doubt the gesture will carry the same diplomatic weight as it once did. Since the first black-and-white animal arrived in Japan in 1972 to commemorate the normalization of diplomatic ties, Chinese pandas have become beloved by the Japanese public, bringing major economic benefits as tourist attractions. The two governments have embraced the bamboo-munching iconic animal's role as a symbol of friendship. China last sent pandas to Japan in February 2011, based on a deal struck at a meeting between then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Chinese President Hu Jintao in Tokyo in May 2008. Currently, Japan is home to six pandas, all of which were born domestically but owned by China. Four at the Adventure World leisure complex in the western Japanese town of Shirahama will be handed over to China next Saturday, ahead of the expiration of their loan period in August. The other two at Tokyo's Ueno Zoological Gardens are also due to return to China next February. Emi Mifune, a Komazawa University professor well-versed in Chinese diplomacy, believes China will rent out new pandas instead to Japan as Beijing is "in the middle of an escalating confrontation with the United States and needs to mend relations" with Tokyo. China's relationship with the United States has been cooling in recent years, as Washington maintains a hard-line stance toward China, renewed by tariff-fueled trade salvos by President Donald Trump who returned to the White House in January. She also said Beijing's agreement with Tokyo in late May to begin procedures to resume importing Japanese marine products indicates that China is making visible efforts to improve the relationship, something that a new panda allocation would support. China imposed a ban on Japanese seafood imports in August 2023 in opposition to the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea. The Asian neighbors have long been at loggerheads over historical and territorial issues, including a dispute over the Tokyo-controlled, Beijing-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. China's increasing military activities in the Indo-Pacific region have only stoked tensions. China has long used the panda as a tool of diplomatic outreach and goodwill toward various nations, including the United States, Russia, Australia and South Korea among others. With an eye on fostering "an atmosphere of improving bilateral ties," China may announce a new panda loan, perhaps during the next meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Mifune speculated. Japan hopes to host a summit with China and South Korea later this year in Tokyo, and Ishiba-Li talks are expected to take place on the sidelines. During a China trip as leader of a business delegation in early June, Yohei Kono, the former Japanese House of Representatives speaker, met with Li and floated the idea of the high-ranking Chinese official bringing pandas with him to Japan. While calling on Japan to promote cooperation to address "challenges posed to the world," such as "U.S. tariff measures," Li told Kono he attaches "great importance" to the panda request as "an important proposal," according to a delegation member. However, on Sept. 3 China will mark 80 years since it declared victory in its 1937-1945 War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, making diplomatic outreach in the approaching period challenging, Mifune said. Mifune also pointed out that China may be unwilling to send pandas to Adventure World in Shirahama during the tenure of the town's pro-Taiwan Mayor Yasuhiro Oe, who took office in May last year in a move that might have led to the four panda's repatriation ahead of schedule. Oe, a former House of Councillors member, has deep ties with Taiwan, with which the Japanese government only maintains unofficial relations. China sees the self-ruled democratic island as a breakaway province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary. Adventure World has engaged in a collaborative project to breed the animal, now classified as "vulnerable" on the global list of at-risk species, with China since 1994. Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman's Christian University, said that China has used pandas not as a tool to demand other nations "give ground" on bilateral issues, but as a signal that the attitude toward Beijing in the recipient nation is "right and friendly." "Even if China were to give Japan some pandas, it would not mean that Japan has to do a lot of things for it," but how the Japanese public reacts to the arrival of new pandas will matter to Beijing, he said. Ienaga is also skeptical that a new panda loan will have any tangible impact on the Japanese government's diplomatic posture toward China or Japanese public opinion about its neighbor. "Japanese society no longer really looks at pandas through a political lens," as opposed to in 1972 when the animals were accepted "genuinely as a symbol of friendship," Ienaga added. Related coverage: All 4 giant pandas at western Japan zoo to return to China in June Giant panda Eimei dies in China after repatriation from Japan
Yomiuri Shimbun
3 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japan Postpones Ending Japan-S. Korea Continental Shelf Agreement; Holds Off to Keep Ties Despite Project's Lack of Progress
The government has decided to postpone the notification of terminating the Japan-South Korea continental shelf agreement, which governs joint continental shelf oil development by the two countries, according to multiple sources close to the government. While from Sunday it becomes possible for Japan to make the notification, the government has decided to hold off following South Korea's request to maintain the agreement. Japan will carefully consider how to handle the agreement while keeping a close eye on the foreign and security policies of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's administration, inaugurated earlier this month. The agreement entered into force on June 22, 1978, and remains in effect for 50 years, until 2028, after which it will be indefinitely effective unless either country notifies of the termination of the agreement. Notification should be given three years in advance, meaning Japan can give it from Sunday. Under the agreement, Japan and South Korea have established a joint development zone in the East China Sea off the southwest coast of Kyushu, where the boundaries of the continental shelf between the two countries have not yet been defined. Both have been looking into any existing oil and natural gas reserves in the area. However, no significant resources have been found and the joint project has made little progress so far. Over the past five decades, the international community's view on the continental shelf has changed. According to recent international precedents, Japan may be able to delineate the boundary more advantageously than before. For that reason, the government has been considering the handling of the agreement, including the possibility of immediately giving the notification of termination on Sunday. In South Korea, however, expectations for oil development remain high and Seoul calls for Tokyo to maintain the agreement. In light of the strategic importance of trilateral security cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea, and the fact that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea, the government has decided not to immediately notify the termination of the agreement and to keep the issue under consideration.
Yomiuri Shimbun
9 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
U.S. Wants Japan to Raise Defense Spending to 5% of GDP; Pentagon Spokesperson Calls it ‘Common Sense' to Match Europe
WASHINGTON — The United States believes its allies in Asia, including Japan, should increase their defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product, according to a Pentagon spokesperson. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is considering proposing its member states raise their defense spending targets from 2% to 5% of GDP. NATO is envisaging a plan to set conventional defense spending, such as weapons purchases, at 3.5% and allocate 1.5% for defense-related expenses, such as the renovation of military roads. The Japanese government is proceeding with a plan to increase its security-related expenditures, including defense spending, from the current level of about 1.8% of the fiscal 2022 GDP to 2% in fiscal 2027. 'It is only common sense for Asia-Pacific allies to move rapidly to step up to match Europe's pace and level of defense spending,' Sean Parnell, chief spokesperson of the U.S. Defense Department, said in a statement, responding to a question by The Yomiuri Shimbun. To counter China and North Korea, Parnell stressed Japan should be in line with '5% of GDP spending on defense' — the target being mulled by NATO member states.
