Sony Closes Factory And Cuts 2,000 Jobs

Sony Corporation—one of Japan's iconic electronic brands—has announced it will close a factory in central Japan, tweaking its restructuring plan by cutting 2,000 jobs from its workforce in moves expected to save it Cdn/US $385 million (¥30.7-billion).

Closing will be the company’s Minokamo factory, in Gifu-ken (Gifu Prefecture), employing 840 people involved in the manufacture of lenses for digital cameras, lens blocks and mobile phones. Sony says those functions (not people) would be transferred to other factories.

That closure plus early retirement programs at Sony’s headquarters and other facilities will cut its job force by 2,000. About half the reductions will be in non-manufacturing support jobs.

Its profitability battered by Japan’s March 2011 disasters and other factors, Sony reported the worst loss in its 66-year corporate history for the business year that ended in March 2012, with red ink of $5.7 billion (¥454.664-billion).