TOKYO - JAPAN'S automobile industry is to lose another 2,700 jobs as Isuzu Motors and Mazda Motor became the latest manufacturers to announce downsizing to cope with the financial crisis.
Isuzu said it would axe 1,400 domestic posts and slash domestic production by 10 per cent from an earlier target.
'With the way things are, we had no choice but to make adjustments,' said a spokesman for Japan's second-biggest truckmaker.
Mazda, Japan's fifth largest carmaker, said it would scrap 1,300 jobs. The group has lowered its production target for this financial year to 1.048 million vehicles, 48,000 units fewer than originally planned.
The layoffs are the latest in a series of job and production cuts by Japanese automakers and their foreign rivals as the worst financial crisis in decades drives down demand.
Japan's top carmaker Toyota Motor Corp. said on Wednesday it would stop production at all of its US and Canadian plants for an additional two days next month due to sluggish sales.
Nissan Motor has decided to cut production and axe 3,500 jobs worldwide.
The global financial crisis has badly hit the auto industry, with the US Big Three firms pleading for a government bailout to avoid collapse.
Embattled US carmaker Ford said Tuesday it would sell a 20 percent stake in Mazda for US$540 million (S$825.7 million) to raise cash.
The Nikkei business daily reported in September that General Motors was talking to Isuzu about selling its truck business, which it said would be the first Japanese takeover of a business from the US Big Three. -- AFP
