It's all over...

Hey guys,

I should have left this post on the site a long time ago. I left Japan for good in August 2008. It was the end of a wonderful experience living and working with some great people.

Therefore, I will no longer be able to update people on how the company is going. So I must leave it up to all of you guys.... The people still there... The people who know how it is all going...

Let us know, what are conditions like? How are you all being treated by the company? Is it different in the franchise branches or the company owned places? What would you all say to someone thinking of heading to Japan for the same experience that you had?

Has there been a follow up training session to the smile training we all had? Anything anyone would like to post please put in the comments here...

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...