Cosmo Securities Co. said Monday 143 employees applied for the brokerage's incentive-based early retirement program during the three-week period to Feb. 7.
The number -- 127 regular employees and 16 contract workers -- exceeded the company's expectations of around 100 applications, it said.
Their departures will cut back on the brokerage's annual personnel expenses by 700 million yen.
Cosmo will book a 470 million yen extraordinary loss from retirement allowances and promised extra retirement benefits in closing books March 31, it said.
The company's workforce will shrink to 740 as of the end of March from 883 as of Dec. 31, it said.