The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the world, and the Japanese entertainment industry is no different. While live events have resumed to an extent, things aren’t back to normal. Earlier in the pandemic, live events weren’t allowed for several months. As a reaction to the decrease in revenue due to months of no live events, Avex has decided to cut some of their expenditures. This is currently coming in the form of voluntary retirements.

Avex has asked about 100 employees to voluntarily retire, about 6% of its staff. The employees that it’s targeting with this offer are the 443 who are age 40 or older and working in the music department.

The staff members who choose this option will do so December 10 – 21. They will receive a severance package from Avex, as well as support to help them find another job.

Avex announced in September that due to the restrictions on live events earlier this year, it suffered a loss of ¥3,200,000,000. To compare, in the same period last year, it suffered a loss of ¥1,700,000,000.

Avex has not released its forecast for the rest of the fiscal year 2020, which ends in March 2021, due to uncertainty in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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