They got him... Sahashi being held by Osaka police.

Sorry it's taken me a while to update the blog, but things have been rather hectic, particularly with all my efforts going into trying to get a free Bali holiday...

Wake up this morning and what do I notice on Letsjapan? A reference to a Japan Times Story about the Monkey man and his upcoming criminal charges. The LetsJapan story also mentions Sahashi taking himself into an Osaka police station for “Voluntary questioning” (pictured above).

There are a lot of ex-NOVA employees who have a lot of questions they'd like him to answer voluntarily also. Like “Where did our money go?”, or “How do you sleep at night?”, or “Would you like to step outside for a moment?”

What questions would you all like to ask Sahashi if you had the chance? What do you think will happen to him in the court system? Will justice be served?

G.education's generous offer...

G.education has started a competition/campaign... The competition is based on the number of 100% students we have in the branches (as opposed to returning students who only pay 25%).


First prize, my staff informed me was a trip to Bali for four days (hence the picture of Bali above), second prize is an overnight trip to an onsen, and from what I can gather these trips include teachers and staff. I am not sure if everyone has to go together or whether someone can choose to go separately.


Either way, for a company constantly trying to save money, this is a rather extravagant offer... Has anyone else heard about this competition? I will post again in the next few days about changes to systems that I have been hearing about...

The G.education GComm Nova stock market float is getting closer...

My staff came up to me this week and explained... "You have to tell us each day you need travel money by this Saturday..." "Why Saturday?" I asked inquisitively... "The company is planning to float on the stock market and needs to have all its books and records up-to-date by the end of this month..."

This would account for the auditor we had in the branch last Wednesday and some other mildly unusual goings on...No hint as to exactly when this is going to happen, however, the indications are that it is getting closer...

Are you all planning to buy shares?(hahaha) How do you think this will affect the company? Are there any positives or negatives to come out of this?

G.Education / GComm NOVA looking for new instructors...

Thats right! You read it here second! (Here first) G.Education, the division of GComm which owns the NOVA brand of Eikaiwa schools has had to start hiring new instructors...

This puzzles me, didn't they have plenty of teachers before and put them all on standby and fire them... Weren't they paying those old instructors less money? I could've sworn that in the old days teachers were always promised 250,000 to 280,000 monthly... Well, their messing around and screwing people over with regards to standby and non-renewal of contracts has now led to a situation where the company needs to find instructors somewhere just to keep the branches functional...

Admittedly these jobs are in Aichi prefecture, near Nagoya and near the G.Education/GComm NOVA head office... Maybe all the standby instructors were offered these jobs and ever single one of them refused... They will need to hire experienced instructors that have been well pre-trained before they start though, as the level of training they will receive will be abysmal compared to previous levels, which in my area has always been good... Now they will learn to pair people up (ooh...) and smile (aahhh...) and all those five qualities...

Are people genuinely going to take this opportunity up? How many people do you think they'll be able to hire with this campaign? It smacks of desperation for mine...

G.education releases Rules and Regulations for instructors...

About a week or so ago in the branch, a new set of rules and regulations for instructors were printed... They were just left sitting on the tables in the teachers room, casually strewn about as though they had always been there... I saw the staff printing and copying them, so I knew that they hadn't always just been there...

Across the top there is big writing in Japanese 社外秘 which means that it is forbidden to take them out of the branch... and that they are a secret to anyone outside the company... I think that means I am risking my job for writing about them here... I didn't make a copy, but I did have a look and make a note or two...

In general terms, the regulations are a step tougher than any regulations ever had in writing, which was the old "Introduction to NOVA"... The thing I found most interesting is that I saw them in May, yet they were effective February 1...

I will not post any specifics as I need my salary at the moment... Has anyone else read the new regulations? What do you all think about them?

My Promised Vouchers from G.education...

2 days after my birthday, and I am still waiting for my promised vouchers... Very disappointing Mr. Inayoshi... I ended up having to spend my Birthday evening in non-G.communication owned drinking establishments... I survived though...

Go for it! The G.education newsletter for Instructors...

Go for it! is the newest incarnation of the "Diplomat News" which used to be called "The Monitor"... These were the computer printed newletters were (some) useful teaching ideas and Company information was dispensed...

This used to come from the Education QCG but seeing as none of them are left, I assume it would be old RAAMs, AAMs etc that are still around contributing to it, and from the last page asking for contributions it appears to be Jack Aranda in Nagoya collating it...

The front page has a publicity shot of our President... Mr. Inayoshi...　not quite this one, but pretty similar. He gives us an inspiring message that officially anounces to us the things mentioned on here and Lets Japan. From May, G.education is finally achieving an account surplus. There has been a rush for people to buy the franchises all over Japan... In 1 year, we will have 1000 branches, and "therefore I feel we must go forward to fully take advantage of these opportunities in order to achieve our goals" (whatever the hell that means)...

It summarises a newspaper interview that Mr. Inayoshi (his first name is never referred to, but it is Masaki) did with the Asahi Shimbun on April 22... At the end of march there were 176 NOVA branches... By Spring 2009, there will be around 1000... The breakdown is as follows;

Franchises 250
Juku-Nova* 240
Puchi-Nova (Petit NOVA)** 290
Total 780

*Juku-NOVA- Cram schools offering help to Junior High School and High School students.
** Puchi-NOVA- Small NOVA branches where one can go in to the branch and sit down and take an MM (multimedia/ginganet) lesson... Why people would do this instead of staying home to take an MM lesson is beyond me...

Therefore, the inference is that the remaining 220 or so branches will be company owned full NOVA branches... It also tells us that foreign recruitment offices will open in the USA, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland over the course of this year... And that the company plans to call some of the 20,000 former NOVA instructors to ask them to come back to work...

The following pages give a breakdown of the sales campaign as I had done here and then there is a list of Branch Rankings...

The next page I found interesting, it was the Refresher course training page... And some absolute rave reviews from attendees... They all loved it... It was wonderful that we learned this sensational principles... We are all revitalized now... etc. The information is certainly different from what I heard, but then again, people that tell me know that the information won't be used against them in a negative fashion...

Then a page on Branch Visits, how AAMs are explaining that they are visiting branches and observing us unannounced and then doing individual interviews with instructors... They are sending people from outside to come and watch us, then have meetings, and our input is highly encouraged... After the meeting, a written report is sent off to head office to help decide what will be in future editions of Go for it!... No-one will be comfortable with this... The in-branch trainer system allowed us to know who was telling us off... They know the people, they deal with them better, and they know our strengths and weaknesses as teachers... I just hope this doesn't become the NOVA crack squad where one complaint is received and a team of people are sent out to discipline those instructors...

Finally there is a teaching page with ideas like split the group in half, have one half ask the question, the other answer... I spent hours on this page, as I had never heard of this technique before... And finally, to make us feel better, we are getting 5000 yen worth of vouchers when their birthday is coming up... I am checking the mailbox constantly as my birthday is coming up... Of course the vouchers are to be used in G.communication restaurants bars, izakayas, etc.

Anyone else's birthday coming up? You all looking forward to your vouchers? You all going to use the split the group technique? What do you think of the newsletter?