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Stop Illegal Dispatching in Tokyo/Kanto!
Recently in the news, an NihonTerebi (Channel 4 in the Tokyo area) story focused on trials that a lot of ALTs face, focusing on the fact that not only are these creating a less than optimal working enviornment for foreign teachers but also that many of the contracts are Illegal. The reporters that researched the…
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Nova ruling puts spotlight on Japan’s consumer affairs
Nozomu Sahashi, the former president of collapsed English language school operator Nova, was recently handed a three-year six month prison sentence in a ruling at the Osaka District Court. Sahashi was convicted of embezzlement in the conduct of business, by misappropriating money from an employees’ fund to cover payments for cancelled contracts. Nova had collected…
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Court reverses ruling on housing renewal fees
The Osaka High Court has ordered the landlord of an apartment building in Kyoto to return lease renewal fees paid by a former tenant, reversing a lower court decision. In the lawsuit, the 54-year-old male company employee of Kyoto had asked the landlord to return about 550,000 yen, claiming he had paid the money according…
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Court negates renewal fees
The high court here Thursday ordered a landlord to return money to a tenant who paid a fee when renewing his apartment contract, overturning a lower court decision. The ruling was the first by a high court and follows a landmark ruling in July by the Kyoto District Court which also invalidated the contract renewal…
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Ex-Nova boss gets 3 1/2 yrs for embezzlement
The former president of failed language school chain Nova Corp. was sentenced Wednesday to 3-1/2 years in prison for professional embezzlement involving misuse of the reserve funds of an employees mutual aid organization. In the ruling given at the Osaka District Court, presiding Judge Hiroaki Higuchi said Nozomu Sahashi, 57, decided management strategies as the…
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Political shift gives hope to gays
The likelihood that the Democratic Party of Japan, the last party to submit [an antidiscrimination law] bill, will dominate the powerful House of Representatives in an alliance with the Social Democratic Party, which speaks out for homosexual rights, has raised hopes that the inertia may at last be overcome. This was echoed by Boris Dittrich, advocacy director…
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Ex-Nova chief gets prison term
Nozomu Sahashi, founder of bankrupt English language school chain Nova Corp., was sentenced Wednesday to three years and six months in prison for embezzlement. Presiding Judge Hiroaki Higuchi of the Osaka District Court said there was no room for leniency because Sahashi, 57, diverted money pooled for employee benefits to deal with his company’s crisis.…
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Nova boss handed 3 1/2 years
Former Nova President Nozomu Sahashi was sentenced Wednesday to 3 1/2 years in prison by the Osaka District Court for his role in skimming off employee funds in 2007, just before the foreign language school giant’s bankruptcy that October. Presiding Judge Hiroaki Higuchi’s severe sentence took some in the courtroom by surprise. Prosecutors had sought…
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Mindan fights for foreigners’ local-level suffrage
Foreigners won’t have the right to vote in Sunday’s election but the national association of South Koreans, the largest ethnic group of permanent foreign residents, is waging a rare political campaign to win local-level suffrage because it believes there is too much at stake this time. The Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan), which represents…
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Ex-Nova boss handed prison sentence for embezzling from workers’ fund
The Osaka District Court on Wednesday sentenced the former president of collapsed English language school operator Nova, who went on trial facing charges of embezzling money from an employees’ fund, to three years, six months behind bars. Handed the sentence was former company president Nozomu Sahashi, 57. According to the ruling, Sahashi transferred 320 million…