TOKYO — Toshiba has cleared one of the last remaining hurdles to a planned sale of its microchip subsidiary and moved a step away from the financial brink.

The struggling Japanese conglomerate said Wednesday that it had settled a legal dispute with Western Digital, the US data storage company, that threatened to block the microchip deal. Toshiba is counting on the sale to bring in about $14 billion in much-needed cash after its losses on nuclear power projects in the United States left its finances in tatters.

Toshiba and Western Digital said Wednesday that they had agreed to withdraw a cluster of lawsuits and arbitration claims over the deal that they had filed against each other. Under that deal, Toshiba plans to cede a majority stake in the chip subsidiary to a group of investors led by the investment firm Bain Capital.

“With the concerns about litigation and arbitration removed, we look forward to renewing our collaboration with Western Digital,’’ Yasuo Naruke, Toshiba senior executive vice president and chief executive of the microchip unit, Toshiba Memory Corp., said in a statement.

He added, “Toshiba also remains on track to complete our transaction with the consortium led by Bain Capital.’’

Toshiba signed a deal in September, after months of tumultuous negotiations, to sell 60 percent of Toshiba Memory Corp. to the Bain-led group, whose members also include Apple and other technology companies that rely Toshiba’s NAND flash memory chips to make their products.

Toshiba’s US nuclear subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric, sought bankruptcy protection in March after delays and cost overruns at two nuclear-plant projects in the United States cost Toshiba $6 billion in write-offs, rendering it insolvent.

Toshiba’s banks have kept it afloat, but the company needs cash to repair the damage.

Western Digital, through its subsidiary SanDisk, shares control with Toshiba of flash memory production operations in Japan. The US company also made a bid for Toshiba Memory Corp., but it lost out to the Bain group.

Western Digital believed it had a trump card that would allow it to outmaneuver Bain: It contended that, under the terms of its joint venture contracts with Toshiba, Toshiba needed its approval to sell the microchip unit. Western Digital turned to the courts to press that claim, but Toshiba responded by suing Western Digital in return, saying it was interfering with the sale.