The head of Sharp Corp vowed on Friday to restore profitability at the "reborn" electronics giant, just days after it announced sweeping pay cuts to repair a bleeding balance sheet.
Sharp President Takashi Okuda said the Osaka-based firm would book a net profit in the fiscal year starting in April 2013, a marked reversal of the whopping 250 billion yen loss it expects this year.
"Our top priority is to work together to overcome the current difficulties," he said in a statement ahead of the firm's 100th anniversary at the weekend.
"I would like to use this occasion to vow the rebirth of a new Sharp. We will make structural reforms at any cost as we aim to achieve operating profit in the second-half of the fiscal 2012 and net profit in the fiscal 2013."
On Tuesday, the maker of Aquos brand televisions said it would save about 14 billion yen by temporarily slashing salaries for thousands of employees, from the factory floor to the executive boardroom.
An 18-year-old youth has been arrested on a charge of attempted murder after he allegedly hit a 16-year-old girl in the head with a baseball bat. (Japan Today )
This Monday, members of the seminal metal band X Japan were in Odaiba rubbing shoulders with the likes of Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and AKB48′s Yuko Oshima. The catch? They were all made out of wax. (Japan Times )
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has announced that it intends to draw up a set of unified rules for the use of baby strollers on buses and trains. (Japan Today )
A man stabbed his ex-wife on a street in Isehara, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Tuesday morning, and then caused a car crash while he was fleeing from the scene. (Japan Today )
Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Monday announced the arrest of a broker of Thai females for violating immigration laws by employing the women as masseuses. (Tokyo Reporter )
The parents of a nightclub worker killed in an arson fire three years ago filed a suit in the Nagoya District Court on Monday seeking damages against top members of the Yamaguchi-gumi organized crime group. (Tokyo Reporter )
Kyodo News said Monday that it has dismissed Satoshi Kondo, 51, deputy chief of its general administration bureau and former personnel affairs division chief, for meeting individually with a female student searching for a job and doing an inappropriate act.
(Jiji Press )
Saitama and Okayama prefectural police last week arrested the manager of an online porn DVD operation that specialized in films featuring children. (Tokyo Reporter)