Nova issue … just updating this entry to include two articles about possible tie up with HIS travel company.

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From NHK news:

厚生労働省は、雇用保険に入っている人を対象に職業能力を高めようと、英会話など指定する６８００あまりの講座の受講者に最高で２０万円を助成する「教育訓練給付金」という制度を設けています。英会話学校最大手ＮＯＶＡの３２のレッスンも助成の対象になっていますが、厚生労働省はＮＯＶＡが特定商取引法の違反行為があったとして経済産業省から一部業務停止を命じられたことを受けて対応を検討していました。その結果、厚生労働省は「ＮＯＶＡは教育訓練を行う事業者としてふさわしくない」と判断し、ＮＯＶＡのレッスンを今後５年間、教育訓練給付金の対象から外すことを決めました。助成金は、すでにＮＯＶＡのレッスンを受講している人にはそのまま給付されますが、今月２０日以降にレッスンを始める新規の受講者には給付されないということです。厚生労働省によりますと、制度ができたこの８年間にＮＯＶＡの受講者に対してあわせておよそ１６０億円が給付されたということです。

I don’t think I understand this article correctly. However, here are the main facts that I think it is saying. This is rushed, so please have someone verify this.

1. There are 6800 people who currently receive some type of government help to study at Nova. Some of these people get up to 200,000 yen.

2. The money comes from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

3. For five years, this money will no longer be offered because of the recent problems at Nova.

4. Over the last eight years the money that has been granted to Nova under the above program has been 16,000,000,000 yen. [Have I added too many zeros?]

Update 1:35 PM

There is now an English article on-line from Kyodo news via Japan Today:

The government provides subsidies for those engaged in educational training authorized by the welfare ministry to improve the abilities of the unemployed and other people. In 1999, Nova’s 32 courses were approved for the subsidies program by the welfare ministry. In fiscal 2006, about 4,700 people received a total of 560 million yen in subsidies under the program. Since 1999, around 71,000 Nova students have received a total of about 16.1 billion yen in such subsidies.

The article also discusses a possible plan to issue new stocks to increase confidence in investors.

Any takers?

TPR is reporting that Nova will be ordered to suspend part of it’s operations for six months. TPR quotes Kyodo news and Nikkei Net.

The report from Kyodo News reads as follows:

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is set to order Nova Corp., Japan’s largest English-language school operator, to suspend part of its business for six months for having violated the law governing the industry, ministry sources said Wednesday. Nova was found to have lied to consumers about its services when it was soliciting them to become its students, the sources said.

The Yomiuri Shimbun in Japanese is reporting the following:

今回の行政処分で同社は今後６か月間,１年を超える長期契約を結んだり、勧誘したりする業務ができなくなるが、契約済みの受講生は引き続き授業を受けられ、短期の契約は業務停止の対象とならない。

Please get someone else to verify this, but as I read this it means that the part of the business that will be halted will be the long term contracts (contracts extending over a year). Also, either all or part of their ability to solicit for new students will be halted. This will only be for six months.

However, Nova will be allowed to continue to teach students and to make short term contracts (contracts up to a year).

Ken at TPR stated:

Here’s what to do…
If you work for them: Quit now. Do not go to work tomorrow. Never show up again. Get a new job now, before the deluge of former NOVA employees hit the streets. You do not owe them anything. If you’re a foreigner on a visa, that does not mean you have to work for NOVA. When a company is so awful, so horribly managed that the government of Japan needs to suspend part of its operations, I seriously don’t think you want anything to do with them.

I agree that working at any place other than Nova is a good idea. However, I don’t understand the reasoning behind quitting before a new job is found.

I would say start looking for a new job now, but hold on to the current one until you have a new one. Also, if you’re willing to teach children, privates aren’t that hard to find.

The Osaka government went after Nova for it’s refund policy, and an LDP lower house politician stepped in to smooth things over by getting the president of Nova a meeting with the mayor of Osaka. All three had a powwow of sorts and the issue went away. This was last year.

Now, this year the Supreme Court determined the refund policy was invalid. Should the LDP member have interfered? What’s the connection between Nova and the LDP anyway?

Read the details of the case here:
LDP lawmaker vouched for Nova

I posted these comments recently to the community in Japan forum at Yahoo:

There’s been a lot of interesting comments on the JET programme, recently. I don’t know that much about it, except that I’ve done the same type of work before and found it mostly unsatisfying.

I just wanted to note that the pattern I see in the JET program seems to be the same pattern I see every where else, it’s for visitors. Come in, work a little while, then go home.

Here’s a quote: “The cornerstone of government migration policy was and remains that of limiting the stay of migrants and assuring their return to their home countries after two or three years.”

That’s from, Katsuko Terasawa, who writes chapter 10 of _Japan and Global Migration_.

Supposedly learning English is about internationalization. However, real internationalization means having people come over here to live. As I’ve said before in this forum, I think teachers should be offered a salary on par with other starting teachers. They should then be given a full time position and then treated as if they will be around for a while. Everything should be done to help them “fit in” and become a part of the community so they will want to stay. They should be treated like ordinary teachers.

Instead, is it not the case that people are treated as guests and everything is explained to them and they don’t really take part in things the way a normal teacher does? (As if there not being Japanese makes it impossible for them.) Is that internationalization?

It seems to me like through such a system, by accident, a lot of good might come about. A JET might be really adaptive, and they might find a school willing to give them the right amount of autonomy. But this doesn’t have to happen, does it? In fact, it could easily be just the opposite.

It seems to me the premises behind the exchange program are that foreigners just can’t fit in to the Japanese school system as teachers, and moreover that they can only fit into society on a temporary basis as visitors. These premises need to be challenged.