Ministry Slaps Down Nova

[Iraira]

I wonder how they got the bunny suit out of the office...

Nova teachers offer classes for food
Japan Times
.

She's kinda cute, wonder if she's furry down there.

[Captain Japan]

I didn't know Japan was turning into Africa. Get your credit cards out...

They have also decided to establish a fund for accepting donations from around the world via the Internet and other media, representatives of the NOVA teachers' branch of the National Union of General Workers (NUGW) Tokyo Nambu said during the press conference.

From this Mainichi story.

But seriously, how on earth would they divvy up the money from from this fund?

[canman]

I keep reading that a lot of Nova instructors claim that they are staying in Japan to make sure they get the money owed to them. But, if there ever is any money paid out to the teachers, can't they receive this money even if they move back to their home country. Or do they have to be present. in country to get it. If it were me, I would head home, either ask my family for the money to get me home, do something in the mean time, research some new job, here in Japan or back in my home country and wait and see what pans out. But staying here begging for food and a job, just seems so pathetic. What interests me as well, is that it seems a lot of Nova teachers don't have good relationships with their families. I know that if it were me, my parents would sure as hell help me out, at least get me a plane ticket home. Now again, I'm sure not everybody's parents have that ability, but some must.

[ttjereth]

The email was from the university, stating that the orders had come from Mombusho, that the university check all foreign workers teaching at the school. As for my status, I have a permanent resident visa. I've had it since 2002.

All you should need to do is show them the passport and visa then. PR holders don't require the other documents since the PR allows you to work at the university.

[ttjereth]

She's kinda cute, wonder if she's furry down there.

If she's as desperate as some of the other Nova refugees seem to think they are, you might be able to find out cheap

[canman]

I just hope that they accept that answer at the university.

[Iraira]

If she's as desperate as some of the other Nova refugees seem to think they are, you might be able to find out cheap

Dinner at Mos Burger cheap enough?

[ttjereth]

[American Oyaji]

I think amdg said it best. It was a combination of events that caused all of this.

Canman,
Let us know how everything turns out. I think they are trying to make sure that no one is overstaying or on a NOVA sponsored VISA. Once you show them your passport and Gaijin card, you should be cool I think.

That said, I think the group of FGs that are recently in country are the ones that are in the worst and best possible situation. There are some who came to start their lives out and sock away some cash which was not possible at home and now they are out of job/apt. There are those which DO have the means to split and probably will.

Canman, I hope that the situation with your coworker is rare and there are not many that do such a thing.

But I think many recognize that some of these FGs have truly been f'd by this and they want to help / make amends / ease their collective wareware conscience.

[Mulboyne]

Canman, as others have said, this is related to the new Government regulation which requires anyone employing a foreign worker to register their visa status. This began on October 1st and is unrelated to the NOVA bankruptcy although that news may have prompted educational institutions to get their books in order sooner rather than later. The news is somewhere on FG but you can also see it easily on Debito's site here.

Your visa is obviously fine and you don't need a document permitting you to work outside the scope of your current status. It's most likely that the people asking for your documents will understand that immediately. In the event that they don't, be prepared to explain what your visa is (perhaps print out the relevant website). You may have to hold their hand a little because not many Japanese employers are really that familiar with visa requirements for foreigners unless they have regular experience of sponsoring them.

[Mulboyne]

This sort of comment ought to help:

"People are stranded and angry," says Campbell-Schmitt, one of an unknown number of Oregonians caught in the collapse. "There's whole blogs now on the best trains to pickpocket on."

From here

[ttjereth]

This sort of comment ought to help:
Quote:
"People are stranded and angry," says Campbell-Schmitt, one of an unknown number of Oregonians caught in the collapse. "There's whole blogs now on the best trains to pickpocket on."
From here

Have these assholes never faced any kind of real hardship in their lives. I hope the shitheads hosting the supposed blogs and making dumbass comments get arrested.

Campbell-Schmitt scrapes by on money sent from her parents in Portland, unable to leave for fear of forfeiting the $10,000 she's owed.

That's what, 3, 4 months of living here? Why would you rack up a larger debt than what you are owed waiting for the backpay?

Dustin McDonald, a 23-year-old from the Portland area, eats cheap noodles while money dwindles, job hunting in a country whose language he cannot understand.

Understand that there is a risk of problems if you come to a country where you can't speak the language, and make some sort of preparations for a worst case scenario, instead of just whining about your own deficient language skills when the shit hits the fan.

Two years ago, Campbell-Schmitt, a 2004 UO political-science graduate, grew suspicious when the 40-hour-a-week contract she had signed in San Francisco became a 34-hour deal in Japan.

If you thought things were sketchy with your company TWO YEARS AGO why stay for two years of progressively worse and well publicized (including in the English Japanese media and the web in general) troubles ?


Seriously, these people are just mentally challenged. They shouldn't be allowed to live on their own without supervision.

[DrP]

Well, I think the teachers definitely got shafted regardless of their supposed mental acumen. Unfortunately anyone working in Japan knows (or should) that there is basically no recourse for debt collection - and especially for foreigners. So - they are doubly f*d. With that being said, no one should work in a foreign country without first setting up an 'take-me-home' fund. The first $2000 you make should go into this and be put under trust so you don't spend it on alcohol and hookers.

[Charles]

...With that being said, no one should work in a foreign country without first setting up an 'take-me-home' fund. The first $2000 you make should go into this and be put under trust so you don't spend it on alcohol and hookers.

Yeah, when I read about the stranded Nova FGs, I keep thinking about an old science fiction novel, Gateway by Fred Pohl. Explorers find an alien space station, so hundreds of people travel by rocket to inhabit it. But you need immediate marketable skills, because you have to pay your oxygen tax while living on the station. If you run out of money, no more oxygen, you either have to pay to go back to earth (unlikely, if you ran out of oxy tax money) or sign up for a risky suicide mission with high payoff if you survive. Or else you go out the airlock.

[ttjereth]

Yeah, when I read about the stranded Nova FGs, I keep thinking about an old science fiction novel, Gateway by Fred Pohl. Explorers find an alien space station, so hundreds of people travel by rocket to inhabit it. But you need immediate marketable skills, because you have to pay your oxygen tax while living on the station. If you run out of money, no more oxygen, you either have to pay to go back to earth (unlikely, if you ran out of oxy tax money) or sign up for a risky suicide mission with high payoff if you survive. Or else you go out the airlock.

Unemployed Nova teacher fights to death, with airline tickets home for the winners?

[fatslug]

Nova teachers could just go to gaba. ecc. aeon and other shitty english schools like that. i dont see what all the fuss is about with unemployment.

[Mulboyne]

Nova teachers could just go to gaba. ecc. aeon and other shitty english schools like that. i dont see what all the fuss is about with unemployment.

All those schools together aren't large enough to employ every NOVA teacher.

Here's more coverage from the Yomiuri:

Nova was cash cow for ex-boss / Sahashi overcharged school chain to repay debts at other parts of group

Five companies affiliated with Ginganet Corp., owned by former Nova Corp. President Nozomu Sahashi, obtained 4 billion yen in loans from failed Ishikawa Bank in return for cooperating with the bank's illicit transactions, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. After the bank went bankrupt in December 2001, Osaka-based Ginganet's funding situation got worse. A court-appointed administrator of Nova said Ginganet--a communication network service firm--had earned billions of yen by selling IP videophones to Nova at inflated prices. It is believed that Sahashi was trying to raise funds for repayment of loans by Ginganet, which was facing financial difficulties, by overcharging Nova for the IP phones....In-house documents of the bank, based in Kanazawa, said it extended loans of 25.4 billion yen to several Nova-affiliated companies and the five Ginganet group companies between March 2000 and September 2001. In return, the companies helped the bank increase its capital by 13 billion yen using some of the loaned money.

The Ginganet group companies obtained at least 4 billion yen in loans from Ishikawa Bank on the pretext of purchasing terminals for the IP videophone system, while the group companies took up 521,500 shares in the bank, worth 2.01 billion yen. The Company Law and other legislation prohibit transactions in which a firm extends a loan in return for capital investment. During a trial of some former Ishikawa Bank executives who were charged with aggravated breach of trust, prosecutors detailed how some of the bank's capital increases were based on illegal transactions. It is believed the then Ishikawa Bank president and others asked Sahashi and Nova advisers to help the bank increase its capital. Sahashi is believed to have accepted the request on condition that the bank extended loans to Ginganet that exceeded its investment in Ishikawa Bank. According to sources close to Ginganet, Sahashi used to say, "I want my own bank."

The fact that Ishikawa Bank filed for insolvency with the Financial Services Agency in December 2001 despite efforts to rehabilitate itself left the Ginganet group pressed to repay a huge amount of loans. According to Nova's administrators and other sources, Ginganet began to sell a new model of IP videophone from July 2002, immediately after the bank's failure. It sold them to Nova at a price several times greater than cost, earning billions of yen over five years. Ginganet was able to repay the loans rapidly even though selling the IP phones was its only source of income. Ginganet's debt to Ishikawa Bank was taken over by a regional bank. By April it was down to 250 million yen, indicating that most of Ginganet's profits were being allocated to loan repayment.

And:

Many foreign instructors working for troubled English language school operator Nova Corp. have been asked to vacate their apartments, rented by Nova, due to arrears of rent. Preservation administrators of Nova, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, have asked the landlords to wait until a corporate sponsor is found for the firm. However, some instructors have already been evicted, unable to make ends meet without salaries. Many instructors are waiting in hope for the firm to enter the rehabilitation process, but others have decided to return to their home countries. "You have to leave the apartment, or we'll stop the electricity and gas, and change the lock," a real estate firm employee told Canadian Nova instructor Stephen Clarkson on Oct. 27, the day after Nova filed for court protection under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law, at his apartment in Abeno Ward, Osaka.

Clarkson's landlord presented him with a document stating that he would agree to vacate the apartment by Sunday. Clarkson, 24, had no choice but to sign it. His roommate, a 23-year-old Canadian man, had just moved in, but now also has to vacate. Most Nova instructors live in apartments rented by Nova. Nova deducted 60,000 yen from each instructor's monthly salary in advance, stating that it constituted the self-pay amount of the rent. Clarkson and his roommate had together paid Nova 120,000 yen per month for their apartment, but the landlord told them the actual rent was 70,000 yen a month. They also learned that Nova had failed to pay the rent the past two months. After Nova filed for court protection, one of the firm's preservation administrators said at a press conference: "Instructors are not to blame. We'll take responsibility, so I hope [the landlords] will wait [for rent payments]."

[American Oyaji]

*ahem*

I need to back track here and talk bad about NOVA for a moment.

I had forgotten about the apartment ripoff. 3 people in an apartment. Each paying 60,000 yen.

Apartment did not cost that much. I had encouraged teachers to find their own places. THAT being said...

---some of the places were absolute CRAP in the cities. But out in the inaka, some places were palatial. I mean absolutely gorgeous. This one flat had a living room so big that it was bigger than my entire apartment.

[amdg]

Clarkson and his roommate had together paid Nova 120,000 yen per month for their apartment, but the landlord told them the actual rent was 70,000 yen a month.

mother fuckers. Apartment finders fee I guess?

After Nova filed for court protection, one of the firm's preservation administrators said at a press conference: "Instructors are not to blame. We'll take responsibility, so I hope [the landlords] will wait [for rent payments]

You hope?

[FG Lurker]

Well, one partial sponsor has been found, Nagoya based "G Communication".

They plan to keep 30 of the most profitable schools open, perhaps eventually expanding that to 200 or so.

All teachers and staff get canned and invited to reapply for positions, . I guess the most profitable schools will be the largest, so on average about 30 teachers per school maybe? So somewhere around 900, perhaps 1000 teachers will be rehired -- likely at a very low pay rate.

Current NOVA students can take lessons at the new company with a 75% discount, but I'm not sure how long such a discount will be valid. It seems they will use a monthly payment system for lessons, not prepaid tickets like NOVA.

Apparently they have no plans (and I guess no obligation) to cover NOVA's existing debts. It seems they will ask the j-govt to cover the back salaries owed to staff & teachers.

Haven't seen anything written about what will happen with the teacher apartments or back rent. Likely nothing positive though, based on the rest of the information.

I've gleaned this info from multiple sites, some in English and some in Japanese. I have no idea how accurate it is, I imagine it will all become a lot clearer over the next few days.

It looks to me like NOVA is basically going to be liquidated and "G Communication" is picking out the best bits (schools that make money) and then hoping to rehire staff & teachers at lower pay rates...

[Captain Japan]

[canman]

I wouldn't call this a bail out of Nova, more like G communications cherry picking what they want, and not having to pay for anything. What a sweet deal. They get the 30 most profitable schools and it looks like they won't end up paying anything for them. They have already said they won't pay any of Nova's debts, and the students will have to pay at least 25% of the course costs. So what do they have to lose. Hell I should have thought of that.
Interesting how all the staff will have to resign and be hired again. I wonder if that is to eliminate seniority and all other benefits teachers had accrued through time.

[kusai Jijii]

Hey Cap'n.

Depending on where they live, they could be up excrement tributary.

Any job in a storm, sure, but how many do NOT have J-language skills. That's a killler right there. Those same ones probably do not have any money saved. That's a pinch in nards. Perhaps they got evicted? Full frontal punt in the jewels!

Why are they deserving of special treatment? The J government precipitated this. True it was NOVA's business practices that were shady, however the govt did not take an adequate look at the overall situation. 2. Different situation in that the teachers rent is paid from salaries and salaries and rent both aint paid. Even if one DID have a cushion of cash, rent and food would put a dent in it. That's not even throwing in the issue of racist fudosan denying gaijin rent.

All of the sudden Japan has self created refugees. Not a lot, but refugees nonetheless.

OJ,
please, oh please tell me that you aint for real here, or that I have seriously misunderstood your point.
As a tax payer, I dont think the J-Gov should give 'em a dime. Fuck, I nearly vomited when the Ozzie P.M. said that the Ozzie government would do what they could and that Qantas was offering discount tickets to the pricks.

The fact is that the vast majority of the fuck-wads who worked at Nova elected not to enroll in unemployment insurance, dodged their jyumin taxes - running the line that "they are only here for a short time so why should they have to pay" etc - and until the bullshit went down had no interest in 'wasting their money' paying union dues. Pissing their pay packets up against the wall in 'gaijin bars' (I always hated that term) is not the smart way to make cash in Japan. And to live in Nova housing - I mean shit, anyone with half a brain could have avoided that one by looking on the internet before arriving. Stupid. Pure 'n' simple.

Tax funded relief for the "nova refugees'? Fuck the idiotic, greedy little cunts. Thats what I say.
以上

[ttjereth]

Interesting how all the staff will have to resign and be hired again. I wonder if that is to eliminate seniority and all other benefits teachers had accrued through time.

I'd guess it also has to do with not wanting to honor the terms of Nova employment contracts for both good and bad reasons.

Evil, wage slashing motivation aside, picking up the contracts as Nova designed them would probably just be setting themselves up to deal with the same contract problems Nova had, and runs the risk of them being liable when some of the terms of the contracts are later found to be illegal, etc.

[American Oyaji]

KJ, some of those teachers are deserving of help. And they ALL aren't money wasters as you described. Some of them indeed have paid into the system. I particularly feel bad for the ones that just got here, got their salaries docked, but then got evicted.

Do you help the good ones or help them all, or just let them ALL fend for themselves regardless of fault level?

I expect to see the Justice Mnistry have an increase in deporations soon.

[kusai Jijii]

KJ, some of those teachers are deserving of help. And they ALL aren't money wasters as you described. Some of them indeed have paid into the system. I particularly feel bad for the ones that just got here, got their salaries docked, but then got evicted.

I expect to see the Justice Mnistry have an increase in deporations soon.

That's certainly true AO. Some of them are. But that "some" is in the smallest of majorities. I wont profess to know the actual statistic, but I'd be willing to estimate that fewer than 5% actually took out unemployment insurance. Its just a stab in the dark, admittedly, but I'd be suprised if I weren't too far from the mark. As for the lack of unionisation, I stand by my initial claim. Go ask the GU or Nanbu how many Nova employees they had on their books before the shit hit the fan.
How about this for a suggestion - all those that arrived 30 days or less before the collapse get help (plus those who were enrolled in unemployment insurance) - fuck the rest. What do you recon?

[American Oyaji]

How about this for a suggestion - all those that arrived 30 days or less before the collapse get help (plus those who were enrolled in unemployment insurance) - fuck the rest. What do you recon?

I'd say 90 days, those who were enrolled in unemployment insurance, and those with families here. (most likely most of these were already enrolled).

I'd say that is fair.

But what do you do with the rest? Deport them?

[FG Lurker]

As for the lack of unionisation

Unions suck.

[American Oyaji]

Unions suck.

Depends. Sometimes they are useful, other times they get in the way.

Been in both cases.

[Mulboyne]

I wouldn't call this a bail out of Nova, more like G communications cherry picking what they want, and not having to pay for anything. What a sweet deal.

If there's someone who will do a better deal then the administrators will take it. If there isn't, then you have to wonder what can be so sweet about a deal that no-one else wants to do.

I haven't kept up with procedures in Japan but the lawyers in charge of NOVA have several responsibilities while it is still in administration rather than bankruptcy, some of which might be conflicting. In bankruptcy, the mission is to liquidate the company's assets and pay off the creditors. Lot No.1: a stuffed pink rabbit. How much anyone gets paid depends on what money is available and where you are in the queue. An administrator has the same interests but treats the company as a going concern. The administrator realizes that an immediate sale of assets may not raise the most money for creditors and may cause a disruption if it results in mass unemployment and denies a service to willing customers.

The ideal situation is where another entity comes in, assumes all outstanding obligations and takes over the business. However, the administrator only has a certain amount of time to find someone like that. The longer the search takes, the higher the risk that the structure of the business collapses as key people leave. In the case of NOVA, because the debts seemed surprisingly high, no-one was willing to take on all these obligations sight-unseen. The risk is that there are more nasty surprises and also that the collapse shows the NOVA business model is not a sustainable one.

If the administrators can't find anyone to take on the whole show, then they try to work out what bits are viable. They aren't paid to get fancy. They don't sit around trying to think of imaginative ways to package the assets to present them to potential buyers. Instead, they field offers from them. This is where there can be conflicts. The administrators would prefer to complete a deal sooner rather than later: it's possible that a buyer willing to pay a higher price for an asset might take too long raising the finance for a bid. They would prefer to deal with the fewest potential buyers: a bid from one buyer at 20% less than a consortium of five buyers who all want different bits would be simpler and less risky to complete but would raise less for creditors. They would also prefer to sell as much of the business as possible so may be inclined to sell to someone prepared to take on more assets even though their bid might only be a little over what another buyer would pay for a lot less.

The administrators also have to deal with people and organizations who pose as potential buyers but who have no real interest in submitting a genuine bid. Their aim is to get a look at the books to learn something about the business. The people with the biggest incentive to do that are NOVA's competitors and it is these same people who can pose most convincingly as potential buyers.

If you are a real buyer, there are a number of risks. Even if you drop the NOVA name, can you overcome the stigma attached to the company? Japanese consumers are very unforgiving and will often avoid a service unless the buyer brings a lot of goodwill (not Goodwill) to the table. On a practical level, can you know what you are buying? Should you take on all the staff or were some of them directly responsible for the problems? If you walk into the Shinjuku office, do you own all the phones, PCs and copiers or are they all leased? Are they still there and, if they aren't, are you responsible for compensating the leasing company as well as replacing them?

Not everyone who runs a company can successfully turn around a troubled business and make it a going concern. For the first year, it will take up an inordinate amount of management time which detracts from all your other activities. If you get it right, then you'll have a sweet deal but people tend to forget the countless other situations that go sour for the buyer because they don't make the headlines.