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Goodwill officials, client arrested
Tokyo police arrested three officials of temp agency Goodwill Inc. on Tuesday over allegations they helped a client company “double dispatch” temp staff to work at potentially dangerous jobs at piers. The three included Taisuke Uemura, 37, a former manager in charge of the northern Kanto region and currently the business strategy section chief, and…
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Foreign teachers to be full-timers
Foreign nationals will be hired as full-time instructors at Akita Prefecture elementary schools starting next April, when English lessons become part of the official curriculum, its education board said. Native English speakers or those who have studied in English-speaking countries for a certain period can apply regardless of nationality or whether they hold a teacher’s…
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Paper scandal points to shortcomings of Japan Inc
Corporate governance is a relatively new concept in Japan, the world’s second-largest economy. It ranks 38th out of 49 nations, lagging behind South Africa, Venezuela and Peru, according to GovernanceMetrics International, a corporate governance ratings agency. The scandals come on top of what analysts see as insular management styles in Japan and an insufficient number…
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Growing Reliance on Temps Holds Back Japan’s Rebound
Firms Increasingly Add Part-Time Workers; Spending Power Lags The rise of temps began in the 1990s as Japan entered its long slump and low-cost nations such as China posed unprecedented competition. To compete, Japanese companies shifted large chunks of their manufacturing capacities overseas. At home, cost-cutting came slowly, partly because layoffs were taboo. Then, labor-law…
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Assistant language teachers in trying times
Meanwhile, local boards of education have started to realize they cannot get competent, experienced teachers either by subcontracting to private firms or through the JET program because many of them come to Japan just out of college without any background in education. Taito Ward in Tokyo said it plans to stop outsourcing ALTs to private…
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Agencies reap tidy profits as temp numbers soar
A record-high 3.21 million people worked at least one temporary job in fiscal 2006, an increase of 26.1 percent–another record high–from the previous fiscal year, according to a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry report. The annual turnover of temporary agencies was about 5.42 trillion yen–an increase of 34.3 percent from fiscal 2005, the report said.…
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Nova management in further turmoil
Management turmoil at Osaka-based English-conversation school company Nova Corp. has led to the sudden closure of schools, complaints about tuition refund delays and other problems. Of its about 900 schools nationwide, around 50 had closed as of the end of September. This month, at least another 50 schools will be unable to offer lessons due…
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Cash-strapped NOVA fails to honor contracts to public schools after teacher exodus
OSAKA — Scandal-hit major English school operator NOVA failed to dispatch English teachers to local public schools after many teachers quit or took leave because they didn’t get paid, officials said. By Monday, NOVA had cancelled its planned dispatch of English teachers to five municipal elementary schools and five municipal junior high schools at least…
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Nova’s exact bid raises eyebrows
Nova Corp. in Osaka, the nation’s largest English school chain, won a public tender for an Osaka Municipal Board of Education program to dispatch assistant language teachers to municipal middle schools in spring 2006 with a price matching the closed ceiling price of 54,850,200 yen, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. A board official said the…
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Education boards hit for using contract staff as ALTs
Twenty-three municipal boards of education in Osaka Prefecture are suspected of using native English-speaking contract workers as assistant language teachers and placing them under the control of schools, a possible violation of the Temporary Staffing Services Law, an Osaka-based union announced Thursday. The Osaka Labor Bureau has instructed six municipal boards of education, including those…