August 19, 2026

The Zenroren-affiliated Denki-Joho Union on August 18 at a press conference held in the Labor Ministry office building demanded that Japan’s major telecommunications and information equipment manufacturer, OKI, withdraw its layoff policy targeting middle-aged and older workers.

Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. in July announced its restructuring plan called the “second career support program” which offers early voluntary retirement to regular employees aged 55 or older, or with 10 or more years of service, as well as to those rehired after retirement. The company said that it will accept applications for the early retirement offer between August 17 and September 25 without specifying a target number of early retirees.

The union pointed out that an early retirement program has a significant impact on employees’ personal and financial lives, calling on OKI to retract the second career support program and not to conduct personal interviews intended to push workers to accept the early resignation offer.

According to the Denki-Joho Union, which organizes individual workers in the electronics and information industries, major electronics firms recently carried out massive job cuts despite being in the black. For example, Mitsubishi Electronic went ahead with 4,700 layoffs and Panasonic cut 12,000 jobs.

At the press conference, Denki-Joho Union official Maita Tokuji criticizingly said that like other major electronics companies, OKI is attempting to slash jobs under the guise of promoting an early retirement program. He expressed his determination to work hard to prevent the company from moving ahead with profitable layoffs.