Major Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group said Monday it aimed to slash 19,000 jobs over the next decade as it announced a 12-percent drop in its first-half profits. The lender said it would cut its current workforce of around 79,000 in Japan and overseas by about a quarter by March 2027 and shut down 100 domestic locations.
Japan's lenders have seen profits squeezed after the Bank of Japan last year adopted a negative interest rate policy to work alongside its massive asset-purchase programme as part of a drive to kickstart lending and stoke inflation.