Sony to Cut 250 Jobs at Japan Plant Amid Decline in Recordable Media Demand

Sony to Cut 250 Jobs at Japan Plant Amid Decline in Recordable Media Demand
Image credit: SVET website

Sony is laying off 250 employees at its recordable media manufacturing plant in Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, due to declining demand for optical media and the rise of streaming services, according to The Mainichi. The job cuts will affect the production of recordable media such as CD-R, DVD-R, and BD-R, but not the production of pressed discs, which are used for music, video, and gaming markets.

Currently, around 670 people work at the Tagajo factory. Sources suggest that some layoffs will come from offering early retirement packages. Sony plans to gradually cease production of optical disc storage media products, including Blu-ray discs.

Sony Blu Ray player
Image credit: Sony website 

Despite these changes, the production of pressed discs, which are mass-produced for the entertainment industry, will remain unaffected. Streaming services have impacted physical formats, but consoles from Sony and Microsoft still support optical disc drives (ODD), and some consumers prefer physical media for building collections and ensuring content accessibility.

Optical disc drives have become less common in desktop and laptop PCs, with the production of rewriteable media being phased out. Modern backup solutions now include external HDDs and SSDs, memory cards, thumb drives, NAS solutions, and cloud storage providers, replacing ODDs as the preferred backup media for home users since the mid-2010s.