JAPANESE car maker Nissan reported today that it plans to slash 9,000 jobs after it suffered a massive loss for the latest fiscal quarter.

Chief executive Makoto Uchida said that he was taking a 50 per cent pay cut to take responsibility for the dismal results, while promising that a turnaround was coming.

Nissan Motor Corporation announced a global workforce reduction of 9,000 people, or about 6 per cent of its more than 133,000 employees, as well as a plan to slash global production capacity by 20 per cent.

Mr Uchida declined to say which regions will be affected by the cuts or give specifics.

For the latest quarter through September, Nissan racked up a 9.3 billion yen (£50 million) loss, a reversal from the 190.7 billion yen (£958.8m) profit recorded the same quarter a year ago.

Quarterly sales fell to 2.9 trillion yen (£16bn) from 3.1 trillion yen.

Mr Uchida said Nissan didn’t respond quickly or flexibly enough to global changes, including market tastes and soaring raw material costs.

“I take this situation very seriously,” he told reporters. “Nissan will restructure its business to become leaner and more resilient.”