Sales of Sanyo's digital cameras have been weak

The cuts would reduce Sanyo's workforce by about 10% and come as Sanyo prepares to restructure to tackle losses, newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports.

Last year, weak sales of digital cameras and mobile phones pushed losses to 171.54bn yen ($1.55bn; �860m).

Shares in the company gained 2.5% on the news as investors expressed confidence in Sanyo's turn-around plan.

New management team

Sanyo plans to spend 56bn yen to reorganise its business, including the move of staff from loss-making divisions into more promising areas like solar panels and rechargeable batteries.

A further 10bn yen will be spent to reduce its asset holdings and 24bn yen will go towards paying for redundancies and other employee-related expenses.

Sanyo's new management team, headed by chief executive Tomoyo Nonaka and president Toshimasa Iue, is expected to reveal further details of its restructuring strategy on 5 July.

Observers expect about 3,000 jobs to be cut in Japan this year, two thirds of them in the firm's computer chip division.

The remainder are expected to go in its consumer electronics division.