Category: Nova

On Saturday, meetings were held across Japan for Nova Corp. instructors and staff, to provide information about the sponsor’s plans for the future. Given the short notice (about two days), there was an impressive turnout at the meeting I went to, one of two held at Nova’s office in Shinjuku. A large number of the…

The business failure of Nova Corp.–the nation’s largest English-language school chain–left about 300,000 students in the lurch. This raises the question of how customers can be better protected when a business goes belly-up. G.education Co., a Nagoya-based cram school operator, will take over Nova businesses, which last month filed for court protection from creditors under…

Students of failed English conversation giant NOVA Corp. have formed a support group, and are urging others to join them. The NOVA Seito no Kai was formed over the weekend by students of the failed chain. Organizers say they aim to work collectively to negotiate with NOVA’s apparent savior, Nagoya-based company G.communication grp. and the…

G.communication Co., due to take over part of the business operations of failed language school operator Nova Corp., plans to reopen a Nova school in Nagoya as early as this weekend, company officials said Sunday. The Nova Kurokawa school in Nagoya’s Kita Ward would be the first Nova school to be reopened by G.communication, a…

About 70 former students of bankrupt language-school Nova Corp. launched the Nova Students’ Association on Saturday to organize the abandoned pupils. “Former students have been left out,” said Joji Yamabuki, 44, head of the group. “We would like to gather as many students as possible to take a joint action.” Following its establishment, the group…

Nozomu Sahashi, the ousted president of NOVA Corp., was getting into some bunnies a bit different to the stuffed toy symbol of the struggling English conversation school chain, Sunday Mainichi (11/18) says. Sahashi, 56, had decked out a secret room attached to the President’s Office at NOVA headquarters in Osaka’s Naniwa-ku with a Jacuzzi, sauna…

Failed English-language school chain Nova Corp. held briefings in Tokyo and Osaka on Friday for about 200 of the firm’s management-level employees, detailing the procedures required to gain reemployment with G.education Co. Interviews for the firm’s employees wishing to work for G.education, based in Nagoya, which will take over Nova’s operation, were also conducted by…

For years Japan has welcomed English teachers such as Kristen Moon with open arms to fill its many language schools but when industry giant Nova collapsed they found themselves on their own. Critics say the fiasco has exposed the lack of an adequate safety net for foreign workers in Japan, even as the world’s second-largest…

Nagoya-based G.communication Group will begin offering lessons at 30 Nova branches from next week, in the first stage of a plan to take over operations at 200 branches of the failed English-language school chain over the coming year, it was learned Wednesday. G.communication will reopen the schools using the established Nova brand name and also…

Jessica Crichton, 23, and Hilary Keyes, 24, former teachers of failed language school chain Nova Corp., sat on the floor of their shared apartment in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, eating bowls of instant ramen–their first and only meal of the day. “I can’t tell my mom in Canada about this situation,” Crichton said with tears in…