Nissan to Restructure Operations in Japan, Downsize Subsidiary Plant; Automaker Expected to Slash Hundreds of Domestic Jobs

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:08 JST, January 21, 2025

Nissan Motor Co. plans to downsize production at a subsidiary plant as part of restructuring domestic operations, it has been learned.

The Shonan Plant in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, is run by its subsidiary Nissan Shatai Co., which manufactures commercial and other vehicles. The automaker is expected to slash hundreds of jobs.

Nissan announced it was cutting 9,000 jobs worldwide last year, but this is the first time it has revealed specific restructuring measures for Japan.

The automaker will stop producing the AD, a van currently manufactured at the Shonan Plant, around November. At the start of this month, Nissan notified its business partners of the plan. In recent years, sales of the van have gone down as it loses ground to its rival vehicle by Toyota Motor Corp.

The plant’s annual production capacity is 150,000 units and it currently produces two models, the AD and NV200 Vanette. Nissan will consider cutting the production of the NV200 Vanette as well.

Nissan plans to globally slash 3,000 jobs directly related to production and 6,000 clerical or non-production related jobs due to its declining performance. The downsizing of the plant is part of the plan. In Japan, the focus is on whether departments at the headquarters will be restructured.

In December, Nissan and Honda Motor Co. announced they had started talks on a business merger. However, Honda Motor President Toshihiro Mibe said that Nissan implementing a restructuring plan is an absolute requirement for the merger. In response, Nissan is speeding up efforts to come up with specific measures for restructuring.