According to Japanese media reports, Toshiba is considering laying off 5,000 employees in Japan. The layoffs mainly involve the logistics department of the head office. According to people familiar with the matter, the company will seek voluntary retirement from employees. The move is aimed at reviewing and optimizing the company's cost structure to adapt to the current market environment.

Toshiba currently has about 67,000 employees in Japan, and the number of layoffs is 7.5% of the total. If the layoffs go ahead as planned, they would be the company's largest layoffs since accounting irregularities came to light in 2015.

As a result of the layoffs, Toshiba is expected to suffer huge losses of about 100 billion yen ($646 million) in additional retirement benefits and outplacement services.

This structural adjustment is a core task to improve profitability in Toshiba's mid-term business plan to be announced in May. Toshiba will begin discussions with labor unions as early as May to determine the scale of layoffs in each business unit. The final cuts may be smaller than the initial proposal, depending on how discussions progress.

In addition, Toshiba said it is formulating a restructuring plan with JIP and banks and plans to reintegrate four business subsidiaries into its headquarters. The four business subsidiaries of energy generation and nuclear power plants, infrastructure such as railways, mechanical hard disks (HDD) and power semiconductor devices, and information technology (IT) were merged into the head office. Headcount will be reduced as duplicate departments such as general affairs and accounting are merged.

Toshiba has been trying to cut costs across its vast business and seek to focus on its infrastructure and digital technology businesses. However, on Wednesday local time, a representative of the company issued a statement via email saying that Toshiba is formulating a mid-term strategy but has not yet made a specific decision.

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