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

THIS IS TO ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN COMPLAINING THAT TEACHERS AREN'T WORKING:

Well, now you know why. NOVA is not in a position to demand anything from the staff, TI's or instructors. NOVA management LIES, that's the bottom line. So go on home now, you're not wanted here.

Good riddance.

I'm not sure if the signature is real on the fax...it doesn't look anything like the "clover" on previous faxes. Is it really his word or just that of an employee?

I liked this job.

Bastard.

This is for anybody still going in, who has a manager with half a sense of humour - or just doesn't care anymore!

Hell, if its true about the government refusing to pay 80% of unpaid wages (in the event of bankruptcy), maybe we should start putting this up all over Japan.

Anyways - good evening all.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/848/sahashiwantedpostermn1.jpg

Give us a break. The video is funny but the situation is not. I've been trying my hardest to be optimistic because I actually give a shit about my students and my co-workers. I know in my heart something better will come along in the end, but don't don't patronize the people who've stuck it out. We all deserve much better than this and it's abundanty clear that some people are going through some absolutely horrible times. We only want what is righfully ours and now it's a slim to none chance that NOVA will pull through. It's more than a shame that we have to deal with this shit, but such is life. At least we had the oppurtunity to get a ridiculously easy job where we get paid to talk to people and basically do whatever the hell we want. Everybody thinks we deserve this shit but in all honesty we all should be thanking whatever god you choose for the oppurtunity we've had. I can't think of too many people I've met at NOVA that truly have any real skills to apply to the world at this point in time. This goes for all Eikaiwa people as well. We think we deserve this shit, but we just happened to be born in the right countries to take advantage of it. It's the first year of university for most people all over again. I don't mean to offend people but I think this argument has a lot of ground to stand on. I think many of us have probably felt this way at some point or another. This doesn't mean that there is any excuse for the way that we've been treated, but I think most of us can pull through from this. To those people who've invested themselves for years ( a.k.a...the "novatron" types ) I don't know what to tell you. I hope you guys had a backup plan, otherwise I must say it does seem kind of foolish to put all of your faith in this bullshit. To everyone else who isn't completely fucked I hope you learned something from all of this. Always have a backup plan. I've met some great people here and I wish everyone the best in whatever path they choose. I apologize for any gramatical errors but i wrote this in haste and booze is taking effect. Hater's hate on, but to all those with a positive outlook, best wishes. I'll always appreciate the good things I've experienced here. To all those who want to knock Japan, Our own countries are pretty fucked up as well. There are plenty of assholes on every continent so fuck all of you who have nothing but negativity to bring to the table and best of luck to the one's who are trying to make this world a better place. (my apologies for any grammatical errors) Peace Out Everyone. I hope you all find what you are looking for!

yup...you said it.
go easy on those poor folk at fp...it's just not their fault, it really isn't.
take care colleagues and all the best.

It turns out that the major NOVA (generalization headquarters and Osaka-shi) in an English-conversation school did not perform salary payment by the Japanese employee and foreign lecturer who had postponed on the 19th.
Although there was connection by fax about the Japanese employee salary which was planning the provision on September 27, and the foreign lecturer salary which was planning provision of 15th of this month according to the persons concerned, saying "it paying on the 19th" from the Saruhashi (さ carrying out) 望社長 last week, it is said that a required fund was not received by generalization headquarters.
On the other hand, NOVA submitted the improvement report about the delay of timely disclosure of important information etc. to the JASDAQ securities exchange on the same day.
the authority concentration to President understanding shortage <2> Saruhashi [ as opposed to / <1> timely / the importance of an indication as a reason which was in the indication timely ] of President Saruhashi -- etc. is raised, and public relations and the section for IR are newly established for an improvement, and it is supposed that authority strengthening of the officer in charge is performed etc.
Although NOVA submitted the report on the 5th, JASDAQ was asked for re-presentation as "the contents are clearly inadequate."
(20:27on October 19, 2007 Yomiuri Shimbun)

As of today, the 19th of October, my students officially became more knowledgeable about NoVAS situation than the two last straggling teachers.
We received a Fax (Japanese) after which most all the students were giving good-byes like it were the last day. Not until we asked if we got a fax about pay did the J-staff tell us that they got one but it was Japanese only. After asking if it was about the staff pay, they caved in and said it was about everyones pay.

It comes down to this,

WE WILL RECEIVE OUR PAY BY THE END OF THE MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!

I WAS holding out, but tomorrow I am off the the employment office.

Then with the post above from FP person, good luck getting your paperwork from NOva to be able to claim unemployment if/when the time comes.

PS students were informed that they may be called in the morn for canceled classes due to protest.

If anyone goes in tomorrow, please copy and post this fax for translation. Just look for an A4 fax with bold ugly print on the whole page am monkey Bridges famous clover "sign" on it.

Sorry, they submitted the report as required BEFORE. Not today. The main point is that they didn't pay you guys.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd165/NovaProspekt_bucket/Fax191007.jpg

The Yomiuri article doesn't really contain any new information. The following is a very rough translation, with apologies for any mistakes, but I think this is the gist of it.

Nova failed to pay Japanese staff and foriegn teachers on 19 October. Japanese staff were due to have been paid on 27 September, teachers 15 October, but company president Sahashi sent a fax promising to pay the dealyed salaries on 19 October. However, owing to insufficient funds, the promise was not kept.

In addition, Nova submitted a report to Jasdaq on 19 Oct explaining how it would improve its procedures for disclosing information. The reasons given for previous delays in disclosing information were:-

1. President Sahashi did not fully understand his obligations to disclose

2. Power was too concentrated on Sahashi

In order to improve Nova plans to establish publicity department and to strengthen the authotity of the press officer.

Nova had submitted a report on 5 October, but was forced to resubmit as the "contents were too vague".

A rough translation. I'm sure Shawn will do a better one in due course.

OK, here's the contents of the fax:

To all instructors:

I deeply regret to inform all instructors that it has not been possible to gather sufficient funds to pay salaries on Friday October 19, as previously announced. I am truly sorry that I have been unable to pay the salaries on schedule. We are trying to solve all problems by the end of this month. Therefore, the target day for paying salaries is now around October 25.

Once again I sincerely apologise for this delay and the hardship it causes.

Nozom Sahashi
CEO Nova Group

It's his family name.

I just came back from the MMC to check out how things were looking. Things seemed pretty normal. When the news was posted, the few people fluttered to the board to mock Sahashi's words, as he once again said "around the 25th" of the month. He basically just issued a really long plea for us to keep trying our hardest to make it through the bad time Nova is in. On the second sheet that was posted, completely seperate from Sahashi's official announcement, it said that he was very sorry that we were not paid as expected on the 19th, and that he will try his best to pay salaries "around" the 25th. Many people scoffed at the "around". Come on guys, he's trying to save his company from a firey death. He knows that we know that he can't pay us and he's hedging everything he's got left in this deal that is supposed to go down on the 25th. Despite the fact that no one was paid today, the night shift at the MMC still had something like 21 English instructors scheduled to work their shifts. Hard workers, I have to give them credit. Not many people have the guts to go in and work for charity. I'm certainly not one of them. But, something is to be said about those teachers that continue to do their job even in these bleak times. I honestly can't believe they're doing it... I don't know about you guys, but I'm fed up with all the stress that's been involved mentally from just worrying about this stuff constantly. I've had enough. I think I'm going to follow suit and buy a plane ticket home at the end of the month. It was a good run, guys. It's been fun while it lasted. I'll never forget the good times -- that's what's important!

The picture that guy uploaded was the Japanese letter only. The English portion of that letter has not been posted about. The contents of which just beg the teachers to continue working, that he's so sorry that everything is happening, and to not give up.

The second sheet that was posted is the one you see above this post. That had no Japanese counterpart to go with it.

DIGNITY AND INTEGRITY, AND MANNERS ON THEIR PART! PLUS; A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LOCAL LANGUAGE SKILLS (READING, WRITING, SPEAKING, LISTENING) ON OURS! COMMON SENSE ON BOTH PARTIES! PLUS A LOT OF HINDSIGHT, AND A LITTLE BIT OF FORSIGHT! SEE YOU BACK IN GAIJINLAND (SPRING AND SUMMER IS COMING) ! THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM!! WHAT'S IT WORTH? IS IT WORTH MY TIME AND EFFORT? "HELL NO!!!!!" SPEND THAT MUCH $,$$$ WAITING FOR JUSTICE! A HEAD START IS BETTER THAN WASTING TIME HERE!!!!!!

I will not ashame my child, cannot say to next door Mrs. satoh my child go NOVA! Ashame ashame bery ashame to sosiety.

...seems to be a plea from the heart to just give a little more. He takes full responsibility, but blames certain circumstances (poor sales between february and april, the "216" "613" (???) report and the punishment [from meti]). He appreciates how tough it is for all concerned but...
"Couldn't you just hold on just a little longer"

Certainly doesn't seem to be anything here about a future pay date.

...that he obviously feels the Japanese staff, having the requisite samurai, wa etc., etc. spirit, do not need details about little trifles like no salary.

That's only necessary for the heathen, money-grabbing, un-Japanese instructors.

What do you project the sales figures for May, June, July, August,September and October to be? Six months! WOW!!! The students have been going to classes, cause they know they are not getting their money back. Just cutting their losses, wouldn't you?

Smiling buys you time!

Agreed.
Instructors should stop going to work and gain some fucking self respect in the process. This will lead to Nova's less painful demise.

It should really be dead by now!

By working off those NOVA points; the less the company has to compensate to the students = The Japanese workers get more chance of a settlement out of court rather than court action = and you Gaijinz helped out at the shit end of the stick, and get nothing! Well at least your concious is clear, that's so honourable, so NIHOJIN like.

Me child bery sad, crying all night to asleep! KAWAISOU!

Looking at it on the bright side; maybe it's a new beginning for us all!

Japanese staff and foreign teachers of Osaka-based English Conversation giant NOVA were not paid as expected on the 19th.

According to insiders, a fax from CEO Nozomu Sahashi was sent out last week regarding the 9/26 pay of the Japanese staff, and the 10/15 pay of the foreign teachers, stating that it would be paid on the 19th; however the required funds were not received by the company.

Meanwhile, on the same day NOVA presented a report on its overdue plans for improvement to JASDAQ. Their reason for delaying the report was given as (1) President Sahashi underestimated the importance of the disclosure, (2) the amount of attention focused around Sahashi -- including the creation of new PR and IR groups, as well as strengthening the power of existing executives to make improvements.

NOVA had submitted a report on the 5th, however JASDAQ requested a revision, saying that "the contents (of the report) were obviously lacking".
(10/19/2007, 8:27pm, Yomiuri Shinbun)

----
Some of that's sketchy - level 1s, pls. correct?

It's all great for you to keep your head high... but I really feel bad for my fiancée who's over there, and has only been there since the beginning of last month. She's not been paid once, and the funds she brought to survive the first month are quickly drying up. Help from home is becoming a more necessary thing, and rather than paying back her student loans and saving up money, her dream job in Japan is turning out to be more of an expense than anything else. Now on one side we're worrying and scrambling trying to find out how to help from afar, and she's over there going down with the flaming plane that is Nova.

"Protest is when I say this does not please me. Resistance is when I ensure what does not please me occurs no more"

This reminds me of: Do me wrong the first time,shame on you.
Do me wrong a second time, shame on me.

Sabotaging operations sounds like a good idea.
What are some ideas that displaced Nova workers can do?
Break windows, super glue/gum the locks? Add viruses to computers?
Tamper with telecommunications equipment?
Fire bomb Nova locations?

No matter what you all do, good luck and I hope something
good happens for you all i.e. you get some money, can sell pink bunnies for cash.

Concerned in Aichi

HIs family name is Sahashi. Not Saruhashi. Saruhashi is just a joke.........a fitting one at that.

What a retarded comment. I really am so disappointed that my friends have such low self respect as to work to save a shit company for a monkey fuckhead who fuck pumped shit all down your throat.

DONT WORK> KILL NOVA> KILL SARUHASHI (Hopefully someone will soon he deserves it. Any Yaks around???)

Are there really people dumb enough to still be working for Nova???!!!

What in the world!? The company is dead! NOBODY is going to join now.

If you have a loyalty to your students (I doubt they have any to you), give them some lessons OUTSIDE of Nova.

Unless you have another job lined up or have saved money...your pretty much stuck at Nova until it falls. Its more about being able to live or buy a ticket home now, rather than self respect.

Most people are only waiting for another pay before they leave.
Sahashi knows this, Japanese staff know this, everybody knows this.

Everybody knew pay wouldnt come on the 19th......the 25th or 31st are more likely pay dates.......

I hate to say it but give the president until Halloween to pay....then give him the finger

If he cant by then, Nova will die on the most appropriate day of the year....

What kind of dumb ass would believe that this post was really from one of the Japanese staff? Get a clue!

Read the Japanese newspaper reports. The kanji for his name means "monkey bridge":
猿橋（さはし）. Calling him Saruhashi is just people misreading his name, but it's not misinterpreting the meaning.

Trying to turn off this bold type.

It was caused by an unmatched "strong" tag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZUSO4WS8QY

Years ago I spent four years at NOVA and while I enjoyed the teaching, the best moments at Nova were always the moments when you threw the stupid company rule book out the window. I hated hated HATED the company bullshit hoops we were made to jump through, the pettiness of the titled teachers and the head office types. I've been watching the post here nightly for weeks now and laughing my fucking ass off. NOVA has been broken for years and it was only a matter of time before the house of card came down.
Teachers- the govt is not going to help you, you might not even get UI due to some loopholes related to the time between classes not being considered working time. I hope you didn't listen to the NOVA dicks when they told you to buy a one-way ticket to Japan instead of a round trip. Book the flight home now unless you have a degree in Education or TESL.
Japanese Staff --- the best and worst people I met in four years of NOVA were the staff. They used to have a clause in their contract that they could not quit without managerment approvement, which was not always forthcoming if the company needed them due to staff shortages, on pain of a 5 million yen penalty. And the word was that if they just stopped coming in, their parents would be dunned for the money. In other words, indentured servitude. They are under a lot more pressure than teachers and have sales quotas etc to make so give them a break.

Don't start looting the offices of computers and stuff - the cops will not take your side and jail here won't be much fun. And You WILL go to jail. You have no rights here compared to what you are used to at home, so forget that idea. Start photocopying texts and materials, handing out cards to the students you like and setting up private lessons. You'll need the cash and they will be just as pissed at NOVA as you are, cause none of them are going to see a dime in refunds.

The Bunny will never pay you again, ever.

Criminal enterprise?
Innocent until prove guilty! Beatrix(Nozom)Potter

Dumb refers to a person's ability to make speech. Hearing impaired is about a person's ability to hear sounds. Not quite the same thing.

Went into the branch today to pick up this fax which was sent to all instructors in my area yesterday. I don't have anyway to scan it in, but considered it important enough to retype it out word for word, spelling and grammar slips included.

if you read through this you will see that the staff are now mutinous, and planning legal action against the company. At the same time, they want instructors to come in and work for the same company that has screwed everyone over.

not much more i can say on this, other than i did contact my consulate and received an email response that basically listed other contacts, which strangely included NOVA's own FP office

As for the fucking guilt trip about bearing responsibility for this, I have a VERY clear conscious knowing that i did the right thing. I bear NO responsibility for the companies policies and complete mismanagement that made this all happen.

START OF FAX-------------------------
To instructors who have come to work today,

I really appreciate your cooperation and carrying out your responsibility.
NOVA can not be exist without you. I cannot express how much the staff and students were saved by your hard work and effort. We, Japanese staff, are also going to form a union and going to fight with the company legally. i have a favor to ask of you, please report "I am working ata Japanese company but cannot live due to the non-payment of my salary" to your home country's Foreign Affairs Ministry. If your Foreign Affairs Ministries approach the Japanese government, it will be a social phenomenon and our situation will be known in society and we can put pressure on the company.
Lets keep carry out our responsibility to protect our rights. I will send you our union's information in English soon. We will feel reassured if we can get your assistance.

To instructors who didn't work at the branches today,

We totally understand your situation, but your decision not to work is making our company's recovery worse. If we cannot provide lessons to students then we have to close branches. In this case, the company, that has not paid us, and those that don't carry out their duty to work bear responsibility.

We can prosecute the company for the salary delay. If you chose to walk out on the job and not work it does more damage than good for the students and for your case against the company. Striking is a legal way to do this, rather than walking out. please try to stay calm, stand together and protest to get the public's understanding and sympathy.

If you report to your home country's Foreign Affairs Aministration, you can and solve this problem in a diplomatic way. The more of you that do this, the better because ther's power in numbers.

If we continue to loose students that are still coming to branches, we will be at the very end. We really need your cooperation.
We formed a union and plan to take legal. We cannot get people to support and protect our rights without your help and hard work in the branches.

Please come back to branches.

signature and hanko of J-staff ITM
END OF FAX----------------------------------------------------------

In response to Nova failing to pay instructors on the 19th, the General Union is holding information sessions for staff, instructors, and students.
Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QFUyxk3QRE

I should have said 'checking NOW'. I'm very anxious and out of Japan at the moment.

Nope...we didn't get paid.
NOVA u suck..
Especially you Monkey Bridge