Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said on Nov. 24 it would cut around 220 jobs in Japan as part of its plans to streamline its vast research and development operations.
The Japanese job cuts are the second round of layoffs Nokia has announced in its 17,000 employee strong research and development unit in less than a week.
On Nov. 20 the company said about 330 employees at its research and development units in Finland and Denmark would be made redundant.
"As part of its global efforts to align its research and development (R&D) operations to be in line with its focused portfolio of future products, Nokia will be reducing its R&D activities in Japan," the Finnish company said.
It added that despite the planned reductions, it would continue to have "significant sourcing activities in Japan" and said that Vertu, its luxury line of handcrafted mobile phones, would "also continue operations in Japan unaffected by today's announcement."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
