Asahi Optical Co., the financially ailing maker of Pentax cameras, said Monday it will cut personnel by 13 percent and close a domestic lens plant under a new medium-term management plan.

Asahi said it plans to slash its workforce of 2,300 by 300, primarily through an early-retirement program targeting workers aged 45 to 60.

The retirement program, scheduled to be implemented on Aug. 31, is expected to result in an extraordinary loss of 2.6 billion yen in the current business year to March 2002, but it is also projected to reduce annual labor costs by 2 billion yen starting in the next business year.