SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) Kanasashi Heavy Industries Co. canceled offers to seven university and 12 high school graduates Tuesday, just a day before it was scheduled to hold its initiation ceremony for the new hires, the firm said Thursday.

The shipbuilder, based in Shizuoka Prefecture, said it is being forced to suspend operations Thursday because financial institutions are refusing to support it.

"We believe we will be able to resume operations as long as we keep receiving orders, but after assuming the worst-case scenario, we inevitably decided to cancel the decision to hire the new graduates a day before the ceremony," a company spokesman said. "We would like to think about giving some kind of assistance to them."

A company recruiter visited the 19 graduates' homes, explained why they had to cancel their contracts and apologized. The company promised to hire them as soon as it resumes business.

Kanasashi is expected to book a loss of around ¥2.3 billion for the business year that ended Tuesday.

Daihatsu back pay

OSAKA (Kyodo) Pressured by an Osaka labor authority, Daihatsu Motor Co. in March paid a total of ¥50 million in back pay to some 1,000 workers who were not fully remunerated for overtime work for six months, officials of the car company said Thursday.

In its investigation last December, the Yodogawa labor standards bureau in Osaka found a discrepancy between the flextime work hours of employees reported by the company and its own findings.