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ZAKZAK takes a look at why Sahashi changed his name. Here's a translation of the article.

Who's "Saruhashi? The man and the name change

My name is Sahashi

Nova has handed over part of its business and is facing liquidation. The culprit in all this is its former president, Nozomu Sahashi. Symbolic of what an executive calls his selfishness and childishness is the brouhaha over his name that occurred about 5 years ago. Executives and former employees look back at that period in time.

An executive who knows Sahashi well recalls, "One day he announced out of the blue that he changed the reading of his last name from 'Saruhashi' to 'Sahashi.'"

The origin of the dispute lays in a newspaper interview conducted about 5 years. He gave an interview using the name Saruhashi, and it went smoothly, but when he saw the hiragana reading next to his last name in the newspaper the next day, he was furious.

"He immediately summoned the staff member involved with setting up the interview and asserted, 'Who's Saruhashi? I'm Sahashi!' The staff member froze because just the other day, he was calling himself Saruhashi," recalls the executive.

He remembers the pained expression on the staff member's face for to be scorned by the president was the kiss of death in Nova. Many employees scowled that, "He was acting like a big baby because he hated being called 'the Nova monkey.'"

For Sahashi the absolute ruler, if something was black, then white was also black in Nova. From that day on, his name was Sahashi.

Interestingly enough, when his office was shown to the media on October 30, the nameplate on his desk read, "N. SARUHASHI."

When the Yuukan Fuji went to check how Sahashi's brother, the president of an IT company, read his name, an employee said it was "Saruhashi." How odd that two brothers would read the same name differently.

Sahashi, who selfishly changed the reading of his last name, is said to have played fast and loose with punctuality.

Says a mid-level employee who quit several years ago, "As the head of a company, Sahashi was an serious night person. He would show up for work between 7 and 9 PM like a hostess at a high-end club. Employees that he nabbed while they were on their way out the door for home had to keep him company in the meeting room until dawn. I was able to go home and sleep, but the employees who were with him all night and into the next day had to work, and never received overtime pay. He was always bragging how he was working without sleep, and never shut up."

Even though Sahashi was fond of talking about "cost consciousness," he never put his money were his mouth was.

General meetings (toukatsu kaigi) were held once a month, and brought together approximately 900 managers and other executives from across the country. Even though the meetings started at 1 PM, he was extremely late in arriving. Waiting until midnight for him was not uncommon.

Sometimes, just as a new day was beginning, he would suddenly call in and cancel at the last minute: "Today's no good. How about tomorrow?" Some people say that if meetings began on time, he could have saved ¥30 million in food and hotel costs per meeting.

An employee in her 30s who worked at Nova for more than 10 years had these choice words: "The company failed because he'd flip out at subordinates who advised him, so all the knowledgeable staff quit. He's a big baby, a real egotistical bastard."

ZAKZAK 2007/11/08

Original article

サル”ハシって誰だ…猿橋社長、身勝手名前強制変更

おれはサハシ

一部事業を譲渡し、清算されることになった英会話学校最大手、ＮＯＶＡ（本部・大阪市）。経営破綻（はたん）の“元凶”とされる猿橋（さはし）望前社長（５６）への非難は強まるばかりだ。「身勝手で子供じみていた」（幹部社員）といわれる猿橋氏を象徴するのが、５年ほど前に起きた「名前騒動」という。幹部社員や元社員が当時を振り返る。

「猿橋社長の名字の読みがある日を境に突然、『サルハシ』から『サハシ』に変わったんです」と明かすのは、猿橋氏をよく知る幹部社員。

騒動の発端は、約５年前に掲載された新聞のインタビュー記事だった。インタビュー中は「サルハシ」という名前で会話が和やかに進んだが、後日、記事のなかで名字の読み仮名が「サルハシ」と紹介されると、猿橋氏が大激怒。

「さっそく、インタビューにかかわった社内の担当者を呼び出し、『サルハシって誰だよ。おれはサハシだぞ！』と言い張りだした。担当者が固まったのは言うまでもありません。なにしろ、前日まで『サルハシ』と名乗っていたのですから」（先の幹部社員）

ワンマン社長ににらまれると、ＮＯＶＡでは生きてはいけないだけに、担当者の引きつった顔が目に浮かぶ。多くの社員は「どうせ『ＮＯＶＡのサル』みたいに呼ばれるのがイヤで、ダダをこねているんだろう」と眉をひそめた。

絶対君主である猿橋氏が黒といえば、白いものも黒になるＮＯＶＡ。この日以来、名字の読みは「サハシ」になった。

ちなみに、１０月３０日に公開されたＮＯＶＡ本部（大阪市）の社長室の執務机には「Ｎ・ＳＡＲＵＨＡＳＨＩ」と記されたネームプレートが置かれていた。

さらに夕刊フジでは、都内のＩＴ（情報技術）会社の社長を務める猿橋氏の実弟の読みを確認してみたが、「うちの社長（実弟）の名字はサルハシです」（ＩＴ会社の社員）とのことだった。同じ兄弟なのに、ＮＯＶＡ前社長の兄がサハシで、実弟がサルハシとはなんとも不思議な話だ。

名字の読みを勝手に変えてしまうほど身勝手な猿橋氏は、時間にルーズなことでも知られていたという。

「猿橋氏は企業のトップとしては異例の超夜型人間でした。出社は高級クラブのホステス並みに午後７時から９時の間。帰宅しようとする社員をつかまえては、早朝まで会議に付き合わせていました。自分は帰って寝るからいいけど、付き合わされる社員は徹夜で次の日も働かねばならず、残業代もつかない。なのに『おれは寝ずに働いているんだ！』と自慢している猿橋氏の姿に開いた口がふさがりませんでした」（数年前に退社した元中堅社員）

また、猿橋氏は「コスト意識を持ってくれ」が口グセだったが、それがいかにいい加減なものだったかを物語るこんなエピソードも。

月１回、全国の中堅以上の幹部約９００人を集めて開かれていた「統括会議」。これにも、猿橋氏は午後１時開始なのに毎回、大遅刻し、出席者が深夜まで待たされることもザラだった。

ときには、日付が変わるころに突然電話で「今日はダメ！　明日でどうだ」とドタキャンすることも。時間通りに開催されれば、弁当代や宿泊費など１回当たり約３０００万円のコストは削減できたという。

１０年以上勤務し、最近退職した３０代の元社員が怒りを込めていう。

「進言するような部下にはすぐにブチ切れて排除するから、優秀な社員が次々と退職し、会社が回らなくなっていった。あの人（猿橋氏）は子供がそのまま大きくなった“ガキオヤジ”ですよ」

ZAKZAK 2007/11/08