Espoo, Finland-based mobile-phone maker Nokia announced today that it would continue its efforts to align its research and development (R&D) operations to its already-announced portfolio of future products, and that these efforts would include the reduction of its R&D activities in Japan. According to the company, the move is expected to result in the layoff of a number of 220 employees in the country.

According to the company, the new wave of layoffs will affect around one percent of Nokia's global R&D workforce, it seems. “Nokia will continue its significant sourcing activities in Japan. Japanese manufacturers are important partners who play a critical role in Nokia's global supply-chain strategy and with whom Nokia continues to develop its world-class logistics operations,” the handset vendor stated.

Most of you might know already that the leading mobile-phone vendor announced last week the layoff of a number of 330 employees. 230 of the job cuts were operated at the company's Oulu site in Finland, while the rest of 100 were made at its Copenhagen site. According to the company, the last-week layoffs impacted around 2 % of Nokia's R&D personnel globally. The vendor also noted that it had 2,000 employees in Oulu and more than 1,000 employees in Copenhagen.

“Nokia aims to support the employees with alternative solutions, such as finding new positions within the company for as many employees as possible. Nokia will begin consultations with employee representatives about these plans where voluntary severance packages among other topics will be discussed,” the company stated at that time.

As for the new wave of job cuts, the handset vendor announced that the Japanese operation of Nokia Siemens Networks, the network-infrastructure business of the company, would not be affected. Moreover, the exclusive line of handcrafted Vertu mobile phones, aimed mainly at the luxury market, will also remain unaffected by the new layoffs.