Nippon Steel announced drastic work force cuts.

Citing the affects of the 50% leap in the value of the Japanese yen over the dollar, company Vice President Akira Miki said Nippon Steel will close five blast furnaces next year to reduce its annual production capacity of 34 million tons by 10 million tons. He said the the change would affect 19,000 jobs of the work force of 46,000 and that the firm’s labor union had approved the plan. About 9,000 workers will retire, and the company will find new jobs in the firm for 6,000 others. Miki said Nippon Steel, one of the world’s largest steel producers, would try to help the rest in some way but he did not elaborate.