“As a manager, I feel the responsibility deeply,” Masashi Muromachi told the Times. He took the helm as president after the company revealed in July that it had misled the public for years about its profits, using various accounting maneuvers. “My biggest task now is to ensure that we start recovering next year,” he stated.

Toshiba's health care division had sales of 409.5 billion yen in the 12 months to March, and operating income of 23.9 billion yen, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, noted the Telegraph.


The rumored sale of Toshiba Medical, Japan's number one medical equipment company, could bring in several hundred billion yen, Yukihiko Shimada, a senior analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities, told the paper. A buyer is expected to be chosen by March.

Toshiba Medical's core business is the production and sales of diagnostic imaging units, such as CT devices and MRI scanners. It holds the fourth-largest market share of such equipment worldwide. It only accounts for about 10 percent of the giant's total sales, however, not enough to be vital in the restructuring. Toshiba's total sales are 6.7 trillion yen for the year ending in March, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The company-wide woes have created a crisis for the company that could even hurt its profitable divisions, if they become starved for cash, according to the Journal. The company needs to ensure that its core nuclear power and memory chip businesses maintain access to capital.

“We admit our steps toward restructuring were behind the curve,” Muromachi told the Journal recently. “The damage wouldn’t be this large if we had been able to implement overhaul plans much sooner.”

But Toshiba can learn from electronics firms, which have made faster decisions to cut back as sales of consumer electronics have sagged.

“Toshiba should have done across-the-board restructuring years ago, but it’s not too late,” Atsushi Osanai, an associate professor at Waseda Business School in Tokyo, told the Journal.

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