Ministry Slaps Down Nova

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]Asahi: Ministry to order Nova to halt part of its operations
The industry ministry will order Nova Corp., the nation's largest English language school operator, to suspend part of its operations for six months as punishment for deceiving potential students and committing other violations, sources said Wednesday. Nova will be notified of the suspension order as early as Wednesday afternoon. Nova will be banned from soliciting, accepting or finalizing new contracts for long-term courses that last for over a year, the sources said. The suspension order will not affect those who have already signed up for lessons, meaning that Nova's more than 400,000 students can continue taking classes. Still, the order could deal a serious blow to Nova's operations because most of its contracts are for periods that exceed a year. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry concluded that Nova had violated several clauses of the specified commercial transaction law, including providing false explanations to get students to sign up for lessons, the sources said. It will be the first time a language school to be suspended from business based on the law...more...

See also FG Thread: Supreme Court Rejects Nova Refund Policy

[Mulboyne]

The Asahi also reports:

LDP lawmaker vouched for Nova

Suspicions of political meddling have surfaced with revelations that a ruling party lawmaker accompanied the president of language school chain Nova Corp. to a meeting with Osaka Mayor Junichi Seki amid a court battle over the company's refund system. City government officials have confirmed that Nova Corp. President Nozomu Sahashi arranged for LDP Lower House member Yasuhide Nakayama to accompany him when he met with Seki last year... Nakayama admitted that he had arranged the meeting with the mayor and also accompanied Sahashi at the Nova president's request. The lawmaker confirmed that during the meeting he said he found no fault with Nova's refund system. "It is a politician's job to help out when a supporter is in trouble," Nakayama explained. "I never intended to exert any pressure"...more...

[FG Lurker]

"Sahashi"?

Saruhashi.

Yes, the guy's name is Monkey Bridge.

[GuyJean]

.. Under Nova's system, students buy "points" in advance to pay for their lessons. The larger number of points they buy in bulk, the smaller the per-class fee.

But when students stopped midway through the course on grounds they could not make reservations as smoothly as promised, Nova calculated the points already used at a higher value, thereby slashing the refund for the remaining points.

Nova said the value of the used points should be calculated as having been bought in smaller lots..

Why is this a problem? Don't the keitai companies do something similar? Lock you into a two year contract which you have to 'pay' to get out of?

Maybe the concept of 'bulk' is too confusing..

GJ

[Mulboyne]

Part of the reason the court found against Nova is that they appeared to have a specific policy of mis-selling. Consumer protection legislation has been getting stronger of late as you can see in the punishments handed out to life insurance companies, sarakin etc.

[Takechanpoo]

How many fuckin part-time english teachers lost its job?
I want to see how they shake their head.
BUAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHA

[GuyJean]

Consumer protection legislation has been getting stronger of late...

Well, fuck. I'm going straight to the Industry Minister; I've lost millions on pints with four-finger heads since I've been in Japan..

GJ

[Mulboyne]

[quote="GuyJean"]Well, fuck. I'm going straight to the Industry Minister]
You'll lose.

[GuyJean]

How many fuckin part-time english teachers lost its job?

Probably none. It might have the opposite effect since Nova will be forced to offer more classes which before were impossible to reserve or unavailable..

GJ

[GuyJean]

You'll lose.

:lol: I knew I read about that somewhere..

GJ

[Mulboyne]

This is top news on NHK right now. They are focusing on the fact that sales pamphlets claim students can reserve lessons whenever they want but in fact there are rarely any vacancies. Another student claims she was asked to write her name and address to test her English proficiency and was then told she'd actually signed a contract. METI believe that senior company officers knew about the various abuses and so decided that the problems ran deep in the company's culture.

[Takechanpoo]

Fuckin part-time english teachers who dosent understand Japan and cant speak Japanese and behave arrogantly have lowered reputation of whole gaijins.
These dudes are enemy against not only Japanese but also whole gaijins.

[GuyJean]

Fuckin part-time english teachers who dosent understand Japan and cant speak Japanese and behave arrogantly have lowered reputation of whole gaijins..

Well, somebody has to fuck your lonely Japanese women.

GJ

[ichigo partygirl]

i wonder what kind of flow on effect ( if any ) this will have for other major english schools? How many eikawa teachers are shitting their pants right now?

[Iraira]

Fuckin part-time english teachers who dosent understand Japan and cant speak Japanese and behave arrogantly have lowered reputation of whole gaijins.
These dudes are enemy against not only Japanese but also whole gaijins.

Seeing as I ate some Japanese grown butaniku last night, and incorporated it's protein into my DNA, I can't say for certain that I am a "whole gaijin". Maybe 98.5%, maybe less. If you are a fecal-philliac, Takechan, I can express some of my droppings over to you to examine for my "whole gaijin content".

[CrankyBastard]

Seeing as I ate some Japanese grown butaniku last night, and incorporated it's protein into my DNA, I can't say for certain that I am a "whole gaijin". Maybe 98.5%, maybe less. If you are a fecal-philliac, Takechan, I can express some of my droppings over to you to examine for my "whole gaijin content".

I think he meant 'hole' gaijins. So unless you got some Japanese hole last night it don't count.

[ichigo partygirl]

I think he meant 'hole' gaijins. So unless you got some Japanese hole last night it don't count.

What are you getting at???

[CrankyBastard]

What are you getting at???

Old Brit slang. Hole = Honeypot.

The only hole Take will get is the one they bury him in.

[Iraira]

I think he meant 'hole' gaijins. So unless you got some Japanese hole last night it don't count.

Does two nights ago count?

[Takechanpoo]

Seeing as I ate some Japanese grown butaniku last night, and incorporated it's protein into my DNA, I can't say for certain that I am a "whole gaijin". Maybe 98.5%, maybe less. If you are a fecal-philliac, Takechan, I can express some of my droppings over to you to examine for my "whole gaijin content".

I wholeheartedly want to eat your shit, mum

[Iraira]

I wholeheartedly want to eat your shit, mum

239円/１００ｇ, just don't blow your entire paycheck on my next bowel movement, ok.

[igor]

Fuckin part-time english teachers who dosent understand Japan and cant speak Japanese and behave arrogantly have lowered reputation of whole gaijins.
These dudes are enemy against not only Japanese but also whole gaijins.

Did you mean...
Fuckin vulture funds who dosent understand Japan and cant speak Japanese and behave arrogantly have lowered reputation of whole gaijins.
These dudes are enemy against not only Japanese but also whole gaijins.

Steel Partners chief says Japanese execs must be educated how to run companies

"...I feel that at this point in time we need to educate the management of Japanese companies that we invest in as well as our shareholders," Lichtenstein said at a news conference in Tokyo.

Bwahahahaha.

[succubusqueen]

"the only hole Take will get is the one they bury him in."



Well said!

[gomichild]

The only hole Take will get is the one they bury him in.

Hehehehe. This comment needs kudos.

[IkemenTommy]

Taro's avatar, busted:
http://company.nikkei.co.jp/index.cfm?scode=4655

How low can they go?

[maninjapan]

Thanks to NOVA - I know a lot of the Eikaiwas are now trying to become more legit - if not 100% at least some of the way.

The only sticking problem for a lot of them would be the back pay into the Japanese pension scheme for teachers. Especially as some people I know, haven't paid into it for almost 10 years!

Going to be an interesting one that one!

[ttjereth]

Fuckin part-time english teachers who dosent understand Japan and cant speak Japanese and behave arrogantly have lowered reputation of whole gaijins.
These dudes are enemy against not only Japanese but also whole gaijins.

Unpopular as the opinion might be, I sadly have to say I mostly agree with this. Especially for Nova.

There are obviously exceptions to the rule, but the vast majority of Nova teachers I've had the misfortune of meeting have been complete wastes of space who I'd rather not be equated with.

The fact that I am equated with them in the first place just because our skin happens to be the same color is, of course, and entirely different topic

[Iraira]

There are obviously exceptions to the rule, but the vast majority of Nova teachers I've had the misfortune of meeting have been complete wastes of space who I'd rather not be equated with.

The fact that I am equated with them in the first place just because our skin happens to be the same color is, of course, and entirely different topic

I sense a war about to begin..........

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Students, ex-staff critical of Nova

Students and former employees of the Nova Corp. language school chain were critical of the company's practices in light of its suspension Wednesday for six months from recruiting students on long-term contracts...A 24-year-old woman from Wakayama who worked until December as a Kansai area representative at Nova's Osaka headquarters said about the company: "The catchphrase stating that if a student booked they could take a class at any time also implied that this included videophone lessons." She said, however, that the contract manual states videophone classes must not be mentioned unless the customer brings the matter up, and that there was a rule that staff could not volunteer information to students unless asked. Furthermore, when potential students took a 20-minute test to ascertain their level of language skills, they were made to sign a contract which stipulated that day as the first day of their contract. "I feel terrible as I'm aware I did some bad things," the former employee said.

Lessons went ahead as normal at a school near Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Wednesday evening, but all the students there expressed surprise at the suspension enforced by the ministry. A Nova pamphlet states that students can freely choose what type of lesson they want, when and where to take it and how many people will be in the class. "Because I couldn't reserve lessons, I couldn't use up the points I'd paid for. Staff told me that if I bought additional points, I could extend the time period for my lessons, but it was just an aggressive sales tactic," an unemployed 29-year-old male student said. A thirtysomething female company employee from Osaka said that she could not reserve lessons at a school in Kyushu and could only attend 10 lessons in three months. Nova staff recommended she take more expensive one-on-one lessons when she complained she could not use up her points in the specified time period. "The company thinks of profits more than students," she said...more...

[Greji]