Sanyo will cut jobs at 190 firms by March 2002 mostly through attrition, Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said.

A Sanyo spokesman said the firm "is moving in the direction" of payroll cuts without confirming the reported figure.

Sanyo also plans to close a refrigerator plant in the western city of Osaka by September 2001 and move that operations to a unit in Gunma, Central Japan.

"We will transfer refrigerator production gradually (to the Gunma Plant) as the integration of operations is expected to help us cut costs and bring about benefits," the company spokesman said.

Sanyo's restructuring comes when it expects to incur a group pre-tax loss of 15 billion yen (125 million dollars) in the past year to March 31, dropping from a 38.2 billion yen profit the previous year, the newspaper said.