Toshiba to slash 7,000 global jobs in five years

Japanese corporation Toshiba will slash 7,000 jobs as part of a worldwide restructuring programme over the next five years.

The cuts mark some 5% of its total employee count.

There are also plans to cut 1,000 positions through its early retirement program in the unprofitable energy and IT service departments.

Moreover, it will dissolve operations at its British nuclear power subsidiary and its US natural gas division.

In a bid for better profit margins, it will instead shift its focus towards energy storage and semiconductors. The Japanese conglomerate is reportedly looking to invest 1.7 trillion yen (S$20.6 billion) in capital and research spending on these sectors, particularly in the areas of lithium-ion batteries and renewable energy.

Toshiba has struggled to regain market trust since a 2015 accounting scandal which revealed that it had been overstating its profits by billions of dollars over a period of seven years.