Company maker of digital cameras and office equipment in Japan will cut 10,000 jobs worldwide over the past three years due to declining operating. The business hit hard by the 2008-09 global financial crisis and the strong yen and have been struggling to recover in the face of stiff competition.
The cuts from a global workforce of over 100,000, Ricoh's first major wave of job losses, will be made both at home and abroad by March 2014. The company currently employs 40,000 people in Japan and 68,900 overseas.
Company president Shiro Kondo said no area of the company would be exempt from streamlining. "For example, you might have 10 people working together to develop software that two people could develop. You need to question whether having more people is really speeding things up," Kondo told a news conference, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
The company declined to disclose details of layoffs, because the state and business segments will be affected. However, the company will move 15,000 workers to areas with more growth potential, such as information technology services for corporate clients.