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Find Teaching Jobs Abroad
Find Jobs in Japan on our Teaching Jobs Abroad Page. Full-time & Part-time Listings for Jobs All Over Japan.
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Teaching Overseas - How to Make Money Owning Your Own School In Japan
Teaching overseas and owning your own English schools - yes, good money can be made owning your own school. Here is how to get started.
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First Nova - Now Geos
Geos Corp., a major operator of foreign-language schools, has filed for bankruptcy with the Tokyo District Court with debts of ¥7.5 billion, and rival G.communication Co. will take over some of the defunct company's schools, the two companies announced Wednesday.
Tokyo-based Geos, which has 2,100 employees, said it suffered poor earnings with dwindling number of students amid the recession and consumer distrust toward the industry stemming from the failure in 2007 of another major language-school operator, Nova Corp.
G.communication, which took over operations of some Nova schools, said it will do its best to secure employment for Geos employees.
"We will hold a briefing for those working at schools that we will take over and rehire them, and will try to provide the maximum employment opportunity for those working at schools we will not take over, in cooperation with shareholders and other involved companies," Nagoya-based G.communication said in a statement.
Geos will close 99 English-language schools, while G.communication will take over 230 schools, according to the two companies.
G.communication President Hideo Sugimoto said his firm bought part of Geos "to protect students."
The company said it will keep the Geos school name and will resume lessons at those schools Friday.
Students attending schools that will be closed will not get their tuition refunded, but they can go to classes at other Geos schools or take Geos online lessons with the money they have already paid.
They can also go to Nova schools or take Nova online lessons at a 75 percent discount until the accumulated discount reaches the amount they paid in advance, Geos said.
The fate of Geos teachers, meanwhile, is uncertain, even though G.communication says it will try to hire them.
Brian Gilliland, who works about five hours a day three to four days a week teaching corporate customers for Geos, said he hasn't received his pay for the first half of April and hasn't heard from Geos whether he will get his salary.
"Last night I got a call around 9:30 and I was told my class tomorrow will be canceled," Gilliland, who has no other source of income, said. "This month, my classes finished, and I was ready for new classes. They said there are a bunch of classes starting in April, but I only had one class in April.
"Basically you can't teach here anymore. Salary is going down and there is no work," he said, adding that he is looking for a nonteaching job as he speaks Japanese.
Geos also runs English schools in the United States, Canada, France, Thailand and other countries. It also teaches other languages, including French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Korean, and arranges for Japanese students to study abroad.
New Teacher / Student Matching Service Launched
If you're already in Japan and are looking to get some more private students to fatten up the paycheck at the end of the month, check out Pittari Sensei. They're a new and free student teacher matching service.
Teacher Employment Services - The Fastest Way to Find Jobs in Japan
Finding Jobs in Japan Just Got a Whole Lot easier! Register With Teacher Employment Services and Start Making Money Teaching in Japan
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Finding Teaching Jobs Overseas is a Snap With Pittari Sensei
Finding Free Lance Teaching Jobs Overseas With Pittari Sensei! They are a New Teacher/ Student Matching Service.
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Nova Former President Goes to the Slammer
August 29, 2009
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 some 56 billion yen in advance from around 300,000 students, in one of the biggest cases of consumer damage in Japan’s postwar history.
The former president has no assets, and even if bankruptcy proceeding are undertaken, there appears to be no prospect of students having their lesson fees returned. The fact that relief from the damage cannot be obtained by pursuing the criminal responsibility of the company’s operator is a consumer problem — and a governmental lapse.
If Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which has jurisdiction over the industry, had taken a more serious view of the problem of canceled contracts and had quickly issued an administrative order against Nova, it is possible the damage could have been reduced. However, the ministry, the government body responsible for nurturing industry, was not greatly concerned with the damage caused to consumers and left the problem unaddressed.
The imminent formation of a consumer agency is based on reflection on this kind of problem. The agency is designed to be a kind of consumer administration control tower, intended to aggregate information on consumer problems like fraudulent sales methods and accidents involving common products — such as the carbon monoxide poisonings caused by water heaters produced by Paloma — and solve these issues.
The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan had received complaints from students about Nova’s handling of cancelled contracts, such as its lowering of the amount of lesson fees returned, for more than a decade. In 2002, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government issued an administrative order to the company, but the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry sided with Nova’s claim that cancellation of contracts was made at the convenience of consumers. This effectively gave Nova an official stamp of approval and the company expanded its business while receiving lesson fees in advance without taking profit into consideration.
Later, the company was hit with a succession of lawsuits from students who demanded the return of their lesson fees. In April 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that provisions demanding heavy compensation for terminated contracts are invalid.
Just before the ruling, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry had finally carried out a spot inspection at Nova on suspicion that the company was violating the Specified Commercial Transaction Law. In June 2007, the ministry judged that Nova had violated 18 provisions of the law, which pertain to procedures for cancelled contracts, and issued a business suspension order against the company. The move was an echo of the judicial decision.
