I started to hear very bad leaks from inside Nikon (not from Japan).

It is very similar to Olympus, people constantly talk and look for places outside camera industry (as it is on last breaths anyway).

People who work in EU and US think that cuts before May can become staggering (around 85-95% of all staff). Huge reduction on servicing expanses and all not very profitable accessories and lenses.

Thailand means cheaper and bad products

Nikon Corp. plans to reduce about 2,000 employees, or 10% of its total workforce, due to a slump in its core camera business, Nikkei reported.

Its business was also impacted by the performance of Intel Corp., one of Nikon’s key clients of semiconductor equipment, the daily reported, without saying where it got the information.

In the company’s reform agenda announced on Nov. 5, Nikon outlined a plan to move its camera production to Thailand and discontinue domestic output. The firm is considering cutting its sales force, the paper said.

Nikon posted an operating loss of 26.1 billion yen ($251 million) for the second quarter compared with analysts’ estimates of a loss of 20.3 billion yen.

• The prestigious Nikon is in dire straits. The operating loss for the April-September period of 2020 announced by the company on November 5 fell to a deficit of 46.6 billion yen. The main reason is that the performance of the main camera business is deteriorating.
• In the video business, which includes cameras, sales for this term are expected to decrease by about 40% from the previous term to 140 billion yen and an operating deficit of 45 billion yen.
• Toshikazu Umatate, president of Nikon, emphasized the stance of carrying out structural reforms centered on cameras, saying, “We want to create a muscular structure in the video business that can generate profits even with sales of 150 billion yen or less.” The production of the main body of the digital single-lens reflex camera handled at the factory in Miyagi prefecture will be consolidated at the Thai factory, and the sales companies will be integrated. In addition, the number of overseas employees is planned to be reduced by 2,000 by March 2022, which is about 20% of the total overseas.
• It’s not just the external environment of shrinking the camera market that plagues Nikon. The internal factor of delay in the mirrorless camera also echoes. Nikon is afraid of conflict with single-lens reflex cameras, and finally made a full-scale entry into mirrorless cameras in 2018. The difference is clear, with Sony’s 1.65 million mirrorless production in 2019 and Nikon’s only 280,000.
• Nikon plans to launch three new mirrorless models at once in the second half of this year, focusing on professional and high-end products, but there are still concerns about whether Nikon can catch up with the delay. Within the company, the SLR orientation that has swept the world is deep-rooted, and it is essential to shift development costs and sales promotion costs to mirrorless cameras in the future.

https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/388837