Let's Japan.org Debunking Eikaiwa and Ramblings in Japan

Just a little addendum to my previous post on Nova opening a school on the campus of Aichi Gakuin university.

A press release on the Nova/g.education website [PDF in Japanese] refers to the new school as Campus ryuugaku, a take on Nova's old eki mae ryuugaku slogan.

As mentioned before, the plan is to offer English lessons at a very cheap price （非常に格安のレッソン料）. The press release goes on to say that Nova's "rebirth campaign" has been progressing well. Nova currently has 156 schools and 19 Nova jukus with a total student enrollment of 58,935, of which 53, 382 are former Nova students.

It appears that more students have joined Nova. At the end of January, Nova had a little more than 33,000 students enrolled, but 58,000 is only one sixth the number of students Nova had before it collapsed.

How g.education plans to make money by flogging a busted brand at low price remains to be seen. They are probably counting on the amazingly short memories of Japanese consumers. If you recall the recent food scandals involving Fujiya, Ishiya, the maker of Shiroi koibito biscuits, Akafuku, and Senba Kitcho, there was surprise and outrage over the mislabeling and use of ingredients that were past their expiry dates. In spite of that, consumers lined up like so many sheep in front of these businesses once once they had paid their fines or their suspensions had ended. Nova/g.education must have their fingers crossed in the hope that the same will happen to them.