Business
15:37, 04-Dec-2018
Sharp Corp lays off 3,000 foreign workers, moves production to China
Updated
15:38, 07-Dec-2018
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Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp Corp has cut more than 3,000 foreign staff in Japan as the company relocates its iPhone sensor product line to a Foxconn plant in China, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.
The move is contrary to Japanese camera makers Nikon and Olympus' previous closure of their Chinese operations.
The deep job cuts come as Japan debates whether to bring in more foreign workers amid a national labor shortage, and they illustrate how such employment is often at the mercy of manufacturers' production cycles, the report said.
One of Sharp's subcontractors, along with three other firms, began hiring Japanese-Brazilians and Peruvians since 2013, dispatching around 2,000 foreign staff to the factory, according to the Mainichi.
In October, Sharp nudged its full-year profit outlook as a part of a turnaround under the ownership of Foxconn.
The Osaka-based electronics maker has slashed costs after being taken over by Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, in 2016 as it struggles to compete with South Korean rivals in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen technology.
(With inputs from Reuters)