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Foreign teachers still waiting for jobs
AUSTRALIANS are among hundreds of foreign teachers who had been hoping for fresh jobs to start the new year but remain unemployed after a firm taking over part of the collapsed Nova language school chain stopped hiring. Nova, whose schools were once ubiquitous across Japanese cities, filed for bankruptcy protection in October, leaving thousands of…
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Firm reneges on promised jobs for Nova teachers
National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu, a Tokyo-based labor union [and predecessor of Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union] whose ranks include many ex-Nova teachers, also decried G.education’s sudden announcement. “It was all very sudden. It was a big shock to people,” said Catherine Campbell, who is currently in charge of the Nova case at…
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The G.rinch That Stole Christmas
G.communications has gone back on its promise to hire all former NOVA teachers who apply, announcing on Christmas Eve that 600 applicants would not be rehired. Reasons given for the decision include difficulties in reopening schools, and the company’s plans to relocate the Ochanomaryugaku (interactive TV lessons) operation overseas in order to cut costs. This…
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Up to ex-NOVA 800 teachers left out in cold by new owners
Up to 800 foreign language teachers formerly employed by NOVA Corp. will not be hired by the failed English conversation school chain’s new owners. Officials at Nagoya-based G.communication Group said they are looking into finding employment for around 200 ex-NOVA teachers with affiliate companies, leaving the remaining 600 or so unemployed. G.communication Group bought out…
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Jobs for life
Death by overwork in Japan HARA-KIRI is a uniquely Japanese form of suicide. Its corporate equivalent is karoshi, ?death by overwork?. Since this was legally recognised as a cause of death in the 1980s, the number of cases submitted to the government for the designation has soared; so has the number of court cases that…
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The myopic state we’re in
Fingerprint scheme exposes xenophobic, short-sighted trend in government As Japan sinks into elderly obsolescence and threatens to retire to the economic backwaters, it needs more openness, not less. Yet our leaders insult [non-Japanese] residents by calling them names and policing them further. Not to mention the purposeful xenophobes, capitalizing on a complicated world, who whip…
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Nippon Keidanren backs wage hikes, raises concerns on take-home pay
The country’s most powerful business lobby plans to accept pay raises at high performing companies under a set of management guidelines for the 2008 annual spring labor offensive, sources said. It will be the fourth straight year for Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) to back wage hikes in the spring offensive, known as shunto. In…
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Nippon Keidanren to urge members to offer wage hike
The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) likely will call on employers to offer wage increases in next year’s spring labor offensive as many major companies are raking in record profits, according to a draft position paper obtained by The Yomiuri Shimbun. The country’s most influential business group will urge its about 1,300 member companies to…
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English teachers say sayonara to a not-so-super Nova
TEACHING English in Japan: a working holiday in a truly strange and different country (to those of us not Japanese); getting paid for talking your own language in a classroom; spare time and funds for culture in Kyoto, night-clubbing in Shinjuku, deep powder snow around Nagano. Or whatever. It seems so cool and out-there —…
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Nova faces long road back
With Monday marking one month since English-language school operator Nova Corp. filed for court protection, there is still no prospect of students receiving refunds on tuition fees and many Nova employees have chosen to leave their jobs. G.communication Co., a Nagoya-based language-school operator, has taken over Nova operations and resumed offering lessons at 25 branches…