EDUCATION

The Japan Times has a mini-retrospective on Nova four years after its collapse, with yours truly given a chance to flog Nova's corpse.

For added measure, there's also a piece on the horrors of working for Gaba.

According to William, his troubles began back home in the States when he was interviewed for a teaching position at Gaba by webcam.

"They told me I would be legally required to teach 160 lessons per month for visa sponsorship at a rate of ¥1,500 per lesson. But that didn't happen."

William says that rather than the 40 lessons he was promised, he averaged only around 25 — 30 on a good week, and sometimes as low as 10. "This was a source of conflict between myself and my management," he says.

Despite the fact he was teaching what amounted to a part-time schedule, he had to be in the workplace 40 hours a week or more.

"I would be sitting around in a booth — they would call it a booth, but I would call it essentially a prison cell — and you are expected to sit there until something falls off the cart," he says.

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This is for you GEOS fanatics that can't get enough of the defunct school:

A JAPANESE-owned English language school has been ordered to pay one of its managers compensation of €30,000 and to increase her salary in line with that of a male counterpart.

The school, trading as GEOS Ireland, was found to have discriminated against Nerea Medrano on a number of grounds, including gender and family status.

The company that runs the Dublin-based school was also found to have harassed Ms Medrano on grounds of gender and family status and for this she was awarded €30,000 in compensation.

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/manager-awarded-30k-compensation-174585.h...

What I don't understand is why the GEOS chief executive in question is only referred to as "Mr. K." This has to be Tsuneo Kusunoki. Why obscure his identity? Or was this information not in the actual published claim? Although the tribunal has ordered compensation to be paid, will the manager see any of the money?

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From the Facebook page Please Stop the Sale of Tatsuya Ichihashi's Book comes this:

I have no idea if the above is true. If a movie does get made, There's no point in being outraged until one sees the final product. Movies about bad people are created all the time, so a film about Ichihashi is nothing to be upset about. With the update below, consider me underwhelmed that the producer intends to not portray Ichihashi in a good light. Was there something glamorous about the murder and life on the run that I missed?

UPDATE: More from The Japan Times:

A movie based on the book written by Tatsuya Ichihashi, whose slaying of a British English teacher in 2007 set off a nationwide manhunt, will debut next year, the publisher and film producer said Thursday.

Producer Sedic International told publisher Gentosha that it wanted to turn its book — "Taiho Sarerumade — Kuuhaku no Ninen Nanakagetsu no Kiroku" ("Before I Was Arrested — Records of the Blank Two Years and Seven Months") — into a movie and got the OK, a Gentosha official said.

"The incident grabbed a lot of social attention," Sedic International's Kensuke Zushi said. "We have no intention of casting Ichihashi in a positive light."

The movie will mark the directorial debut of Japanese actor Dean Fujioka, who will also play Ichihashi in the film. Casting has not been completed for the other roles, and filming will begin in January, Zushi said.

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A few days ago a reader commented on Interac's odd (new?) hiring scheme: Refer a friend to Interac and they'll make a donation of up to 500,000 yen (in your name?) to UNICEF.

Here's the pitch from the Interac newsletter:

I'm not sure what to say. This seems like an odd way to hire people. If I were an Interac "alumni" how is this supposed to motivate me? If I wanted to donate to a charity, I'd open up my wallet and donate because I want to, not because I'm a shill for Interac. Why jump through Interac's vague hoops for charity? The way it's written, the donation is not a sure thing and it's not clear how much money will be donated.

What's your take?

LATER...Now that I think about it, if you simply passed around a collection box at Interac, you could probably raise far more than 500,000 yen from employees for earthquake relief.

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Via the forums, a great comic on being an eikaiwa teacher: Little in Japan.

Excellent stuff.

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As reported in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun and ELT News, Nichii Gakkan, a medical and educational services company, will purchase Gaba's stock and make it a wholly-owned subsidiary:

Nichii Gakkan, a medical / education business has confirmed that it intends to purchase shares of the English conversation school chain Gaba in an attempt to bolster its education business. The company plans to spend up to 10 billion yen (around 127 million dollars) to make Gaba a wholly owned subsidiary. Nichii said it will buy at least the 26,390 shares owned by Gaba's main shareholder, Daiwa Corporate Investment Co. It set no maximum number of shares that it will purchase.

The offer price of 200,000 yen per share is a 53% premium over Friday's close. The board of Gaba, a company listed on the Mothers section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has agreed to the move.

Or if you're interested in an alternate title, "Gaba cashes in its chips." I think if I were offered a 53% premium on shares that are worth less than half of their initial value in a moribund industry, I'd be tempted to get rid of them.

This bit caught my eye:

Even though its offerings have expanded beyond its mainstay preparatory courses for medical and nursing licenses, it is still struggling. The firm expects the Gaba brand to help it win contracts for corporate English training and to expand its online offerings."

A look at Nichii Gakkan's English lessons shows that they offer the standard range of TOEIC lessons and survival English for travelers. Moreover, it looks like the lessons are presented in some sort of e-learning Flash format with cheap-looking animations. I wonder what the attraction is given who widespread ultra-cheap lessons via Skype are these days?

What value does Nichii Gakkan see in the Gaba brand? Is it really that strong? What know-how does Gaba have other than its list of business clients, and is it worth paying 10 billion yen for that? One wonders...

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I had been meaning to write about this earlier, but given the way events are unfolding in the Fukushima nuclear crisis, an article published in May in the Japan Times about an ALT returning to finish his contract isn't so outdated.

On one hand, it's admirable that this guy and the other ALTs decided to stick around and finish their contracts. But on the other hand, I wonder if they are not fools for willfully living so close to a nuclear reactor that has melted down.

"Honestly, it came down to the people," Hauan said when asked why he ultimately decided to return May 10.

Besides, he added, he constantly received updates from his Japanese employers about the situation in Fukushima and was aware that things were safer than they were portrayed by some Western media.

In the early stages of the disaster, the Western media "reporting" was hysterical, but since then, they've calmed down and collected themselves. Now the public is left wondering if they can trust all the downplaying by the government.

Three months after the disaster and the truth is only finally starting to come out--reactors one, two, and three suffered a melt down and probably a "melt-through," too. Cesium has shown up in tea leaves as far away as Shizuoka, the water treatment system TEPCO is using to filter radioactive water had to be stopped after only five hours, and an increasing number of residents in and around Tokyo are asking for more radiation monitoring.

However, back in Tamura, 35km from the Fukushima reactor, life has "more or less returned to normal." In this case, normal means wearing long sleeves and a mask when outside, making sure the kids don't put any dirt or sand in their mouths, and avoiding some of the locally-grown food.

The image that seems to be taking shape now is that the nuclear disaster is far from over and the new normal will likely consist of a permanent exclusion zone. Many of the locals must be wondering if they will ever be able to return home.

Consider this an open thread. Anybody have information on how teaching has been affected in the Tohoku region? Business as usual, or has hiring been difficult?

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The National Museum for Emerging Science and Innovation, known as Miraikan, reopened last Saturday after a three-month closure. Part of the Miraikan's ceiling collapsed during the earthquake.

Some video taken on the seventh floor during the quake.

This clip captures the ceiling collapse.

Before the Miraikan officially re-opened on the 11th, I was lucky enough to be invited to a special viewing of the "Making of the Sky Tree" exhibit on the 10th.

The exhibit covers the construction of the Sky Tree and contains some stunning video and photography. This in itself was interesting but what stole the show for me was the huge six-meter globe made of over 10 thousand OLED panels hanging above everything in the exhibition hall.

This thing was mesmerizing. If they could make a version for the home, I'd get in line to buy one. It sounds mundane, but watching the clouds swirl around the earth and seeing the world transition from day into night certainly beats anything on TV these days.

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Over the past 10 years, LJ has gone from being a website that tried to warn others about the pitfalls of working for GEOS, to documenting the criminal activities that are a part of eikaiwa, large and small schools alike.

There was the spectacular collapse of Nova that exposed it as a criminal enterprise. Then there was the sudden collapse of GEOS Australia in which GEOS Japan reassured everyone that everything was fine...only for the company to go bankrupt itself.

If you think these are pretty tame examples, how about Berlitz suing its instructors for trying to exercise their right to strike? If this kind of assholerly isn't enough, surely no one could top Fortress Japan's flat out extortion when it came to signing up robbing new students.

You know what would be worse than these examples of abuse and thievery? Using the Tohoku Kanto earthquake to make it look like teaching English is a heroic effort. Oh, wait...that's been done:

Yes, GaijinPot thinks the aftermath of a tsunami and an unfolding nuclear crisis is a great time to come and work in Japan. Teaching English=rebuilding Japan!

Japan doesn't need you. It needs electricity. It needs to get the Fukushima reactors under control. Survivors need hot food and a warm roof over their heads.

Shame on these schools for using a disaster to promote their businesses. This ad campaign is not about what you can do for Japan--it's about the schools desperately trying to find teachers. I have a feeling that nobody wants to work anywhere near Fukushima.

By all means come to Japan to teach, but don't think that working in Hiroshima or Shizuoka is helping to rebuild Japan. If you want to help rebuild, donate to the Red Cross.

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The March 19th edition of the Toyo Keizai magazine reports an embarrassing situation for G.communication.

According to the article (see attached PDF), G.com was looking to raise to some money last October, so it sought financing from Yohohama-based BOW Networks and put up a sizable chunk of its shares in G.Taste, G.Networks, and Yakiniku Saki as collateral. The shares amounted from around 4 to 10 per cent of G.com's issued stock and had a value at the time of about 500 million yen.

When G.com never got its shares back, they realized that something was wrong. The office that BOW Networks had near JR Shin-Yokohama Station was empty. The landlord said that they were four months behind on their rent. Registered mail sent to the president's residence was returned marked, "Unknown address."

Who are or were BOW Networks? The company was set up 20 years ago in Miyazaki Prefecture and originally sold golf equipment. The company moved its headquarters to the Kanto area 11 years ago and apparently has been dealing in security devices ever since.

Why would G.com go to them for half a billion yen? When G.com took over Nova and started expanding its business, it became a member of the Incubator Bank's small and medium business network and used it to finance its growth. But when the bank collapsed last September, it needed to find another backer.

Initially, Hanshin Shuhan, a Kobe-based liquor distributor, was named as a potential sponsor. While Hanshin Shuhan apparently liked to tout itself as a mover and shaker, the reality was that it had little money. Even though it acted big in putting up Asrapport Dining's (a JASDAQ-listed company it owned) shares as collateral and applied for 400 million yen from the Incubator Bank, the company was just barely scraping by.

So it comes as no surprise that talks between G.com and Hanshin Shuhan fell apart at the end of last year, and now someone has absconded with G.com's shares. G.com is apparently refusing to divulge any further details about what happened, but Toyo Keizai wonders if the breakdown in talks and missing shares aren't connected somehow.

Comment: There you have it. G.communication is the largest eikaiwa in Japan after snapping up Nova and GEOS, but it apparently gambles with its money and associates with shady businesses. Isn't that comforting to know? Then again, as I've talked about often here, poor management isn't just a failing of eikaiwa, it's a feature.

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