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Aussies lose teaching jobs in Japan
Consular assistance is being offered to 1,300 Australians whose English-teaching company in Japan is going bust, Foreign Affairs minister Alexander Downer says. Mr Downer said some of the teachers would return to Australia, while others would simply get another job. Last month, the Osaka-based Nova Corporation reassured their 7,000 staff, 5,000 of whom are foreigners,…
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Nova struggling to pay refunds, wages
Major English-conversation school operator Nova Corp. is struggling to pay refunds for prepaid lessons to students who canceled their contracts with the company midterm and has had difficulty paying employees’ salaries, according to sources. The Osaka Chuo Labor Standards Inspection Office in Osaka has instructed the Osaka-based company four times to pay wages to its…
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English-language school Nova Corp. has raised ¥70 million in cash by issuing warrants for 200 million shares in total to two investment companies registered in the Virgin Islands, according to a paper submitted to the Kanto Local Financial Bureau and released to the public Tuesday. According to the paper, the scandal-hit language school will use…
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Debito says “Unionize!”
I encourage everyone in Japan who is [non-Japanese] to join a union. I have. Lose the allergy and the visions of George Meany and Jimmy Hoffa, and realize it?s the only recourse you have in Japan to get your labor rights enforced. All other measures, as I have written in the past (http://www.debito.org/acadapartupdateoct05.html), be they…
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Jasdaq rejects NOVA report on improvement measures
The Jasdaq Securities Exchange has rejected a report on improvement measures submitted by trouble-hit English language company NOVA as insufficient, and instructed it to submit a new report by Oct. 19, it has been learned. The securities exchange said NOVA had failed to sort out problem issues and points requiring improvement in a report submitted…
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New immigration law to go into effect Nov. 20
The government decided at a Cabinet meeting Friday to implement the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law from Nov. 20, requiring all foreign visitors aged 16 or older to be fingerprinted and photographed when they enter the country. Under the law, if foreigners refuse to have their fingerprints taken or supply other information, the…
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Nova collapse feared
Hundreds of Australian teachers of English in Japan should “start making contingency plans”, the Government has warned, as erratic behaviour by language school colossus NOVA this week fuelled more predictions of an impending collapse. Dozens of foreign staff at NOVA, which employs more than 1000 Australians, have reportedly been given eviction notices because the corporate…
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Students deceived in overseas jobs
Despite possible closure of 300 schools, company that recruits Canadian teachers from universities still hiring by David Jobson Nova Group of Japan, the largest private language school in Japan, has encountered serious financial and legal problems. But that hasn?t stopped the company from hiring Canadian students to teach in Japan. Nova ? the largest employer…
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After failing honesty test, NOVA tightens the screws on teachers
NOVA, Japan’s biggest chain of English language conversation schools is feeling the pinch, and it’s struggling to pay its biggest asset — foreign teachers, Weekly Playboy (10/15) says. NOVA was supposed to pay its instructors on Sept. 15, but hundreds still hadn’t received their wages 10 days later and some may have still yet to…
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Aussie teachers not paid, left homeless in Japan
THOUSANDS of Australians in Japan face the prospect of no jobs and no accommodation amid growing fears the country’s largest English conversation school is on the brink of collapse. Nova, the bulk of whose 5000-strong foreign workforce is Australian, might go bankrupt as early as November, Tokyo-based business consultant Ken Worsley said. The company’s Australian…