Oki Electric Industry (OKI), the Tokyo Prime-listed electronics maker, is inviting an unlimited number of employees to take early retirement, provided they are old enough and have stayed long enough. The board approved the special measure on July 15, opening a five-week application window from August 17 to September 25, with a fixed retirement date of October 31, 2026.
Eligibility covers regular employees and staff already rehired after mandatory retirement, at OKI and its group companies, who are 55 or older and have logged at least ten years of service by October 31. OKI set no ceiling on how many workers can apply, an open-ended structure that leaves the eventual scale of the program, and its cost, unknown for now.
Those who go will receive a special premium layered on top of the standard retirement payout, plus optional outplacement support to help them find new roles outside the company.
OKI frames the move as part of its Management Plan 2031, launched this fiscal year, which calls for shifting talent toward AI and digital-transformation work, passing institutional knowledge to younger staff, and matching headcount more closely to business strategy. The company says the program lets long-serving staff apply their experience and specialism outside OKI while it reallocates people toward growth areas.
OKI has not revised its consolidated earnings forecast for the year to March 2027. It says it will disclose the financial impact, including the cost of the premium payouts, once it knows how many employees actually apply.