* Cuts mainly to come overseas - Nikkei
* Panasonic wants to streamline overlapping operations - Nikkei
* Firm scheduled to announce earnings on Thursday (Updates with spokesman comment, details)
TOKYO, April 28 (Reuters) - Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp will reduce its workforce by about 40,000, mainly through cuts overseas, over the next two years to streamline overlapping operations, the Nikkei business daily said.
The company, which employs about 380,000 people, will incur more than 100 billion yen ($1.22 billion) in expenses this year related to the job cuts and a reorganisation of production facilities, the newspaper reported.
Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo will announce the restructuring on Thursday, the Nikkei said. Panasonic is scheduled to announce its earnings for the past business year ended in March after the market close in Tokyo on Thursday.
Panasonic spokesman Toshihiko Shibuya said the Nikkei article was not based on information disclosed by the firm. He declined to elaborate.
The job cuts are part of Panasonic's efforts to streamline overlapping operations at Panasonic Electric Works and Sanyo Electric Co, which became wholly owned units in April and employ 60,000 and 100,000 workers respectively, the newspaper said.
Panasonic shed 26,000 workers after the information technology bubble burst, and about 15,000 in the aftermath of the Lehman shock, the Nikkei said.
Panasonic may have logged a net profit of about 70 billion yen for the year ended March 31, missing its own forecast of 85 billion yen due to lower sales since the March 11 earthquake, the Nikkei said.
For the financial year to March 2012, net profit will likely fall 30 percent to around 50 billion yen, excluding the effects of the quake, the Nikkei reported. ($1 = 82.220 Japanese Yen) (Reporting by Arpita Mukherjee in Bangalore and Nathan Layne in Tokyo; Editing by Joseph Radford)