TOKYO - Sony Corp is cutting 10,000 jobs, about 6 per cent of its global workforce, the Nikkei newspaper reported yesterday, as new chief executive Kazuo Hirai comes under pressure to return the Japanese consumer- electronics and entertainment company to profit after four years in the red.

The job cuts are the latest downsizing in Japan, where companies from tech names NEC Corp and Sumco Corp to brokerage Daiwa Securities are trimming costs to revamp their businesses.

Sony announced in December 2008 cuts of 16,000 workers after the global financial crisis hit demand for its electronic products, but it has not managed to make a profit since then.

As of end-March last year, Sony had 168,200 employees on a consolidated basis.

The company, which expects a 220-billion-yen (S$3.4-billion) net loss for the fiscal year just ended, said last month that Mr Hirai would keep direct charge of Sony's ailing TV business in a reorganisation of the company's business structure.

The Nikkei said half of the latest round of job cuts would come from consolidating the firm's chemicals and small and mid-sized LCD operations.