Japan Display Inc. is considering reducing its workforce by around 1,000, mainly in Japan, as the Apple Inc. supplier accelerates restructuring to cut costs, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.
The display-maker has agreed to a bailout by Chinese and Taiwanese firms.
Japan Display is likely to have booked a group net loss for the fifth straight year in fiscal 2018 on slower demand for display panels for smartphones. It will release the results later in the day.
Japan Display was created in 2012 through the government-sponsored merger of the display operations of Sony Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. with support from state-backed fund INCJ Ltd.
But facing fierce competition from its Asian rivals, Japan Display has cut around 3,500 employees abroad and 300 in Japan to improve its finances.
It said last month it will receive an ¥80 billion ($729 million) capital injection from a consortium including China's Harvest Tech Investment Management Co. and major Taiwanese panel maker TPK Holding Co.
Under the deal, the Chinese-Taiwanese group will together own 49.8 percent of Japan Display while INCJ's shareholdings in the company will fall to 12.7 percent from the current 25.3 percent.
Japan Display Chairman Nobuhiro Higashiiriki is expected to quit the post he assumed in 2017, the sources said.
President Yoshiyuki Tsukizaki has served as acting chairman since the end of March after Higashiiriki took leave to recuperate from illness.
