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

If you haven't heard by now, the Immigration Bureau has officially deleted Guideline 8 and replaced it with:

"In order to promote signing up for social insurance, we will ask (foreign residents) to present their health insurance card starting April 1. We will not reject renewal or change of visa status for failing to present the card."

In other words, if you aren't enrolled in shakai hoken or kokumin kenko hoken when you go to renew your visa this year, your application will not be refused nor will they try and boot you out of the country.

The headline to The Japan Times article--Foreigners get nod to skip social insurance-- is misleading because the deletion of Guideline 8 has nothing to do with being able to opt out of social insurance. While the Free Choice Foundation is celebrating this as a victory, the law of land still obligates you to enroll in a national health insurance plan. While you'll get your visa, Immigration is still going to ask to see your health insurance card anyway.

For more, Hoofin has been all over this issue (and Ronald Kessler's case) and his latest is worth a read.

Good news if you're worried about the possibility of your visa renewal being denied due to your lack of national health insurance coverage:

The Immigration Bureau is planning to change a new guideline for foreign residents to ease concerns that those without social insurance will be forced to choose between losing their visa and entering the insurance system, a bureau official said Monday.

[...]

"The bureau will delete item No. 8 by the end of March, and 'lightly mention' the need to present a health insurance card in the introductory passage of the guideline," Immigration Bureau spokesman Yoshikazu Iimura told The Japan Times. "The wording will be in a manner to eliminate foreign residents' concerns that their visas won't be renewed if they don't have insurance."

So now the Immigration Bureau will "lightly mention" that you should be
enrolled in shakai hoken or kokumin kenko hoken. Curiously, the article passes off the change as a victory:

Foreigners and their supporters have protested the new
guideline as an infringement on freedom of choice.

Back in September, The Japan Times interviewed Susumu Ikegami, a spokesman for Geos, and asked him about the eikaiwa market. To no surprise, he said business was down but for some reason could not explain why.

Four months later, this article, and the rumours swirling about the health of the company, have apparently prompted Geos to take action so to speak. What better forum to set the record straight than a puff piece in the ELT Gazette? A reader informs me that Geos "fights back" in the January issue in an article titled "GEOS rebuts crisis claims" (requires free registration to read the article).

Here's a sample of the spin that will leave you dizzy:

Geos Teaching Ltd’s human resources director Chad Lafferty, based in Japan, said, ‘Opening and closing locations is a normal part of business… The global recession has certainly impacted the way we do business, but it would be wrong to say that any closures or restructuring of the company are directly related to the recession.’

[...]

The push for better sales results is alleged to have blurred the line between sales and teaching. One former teacher, who asked not to be named, felt ‘let down by management’ and identified ‘sales skills required by teachers’ as one reason why Geos was not ‘a school a teacher could stay in for long’.

In response, Mr Lafferty stated that ‘all employees are told at the time of being hired that sales is a part of the job. They are also told that they should never make a recommendation that isn’t in the student’s best interest.’ He added, ‘The sales pressure on teachers hasn’t really increased or decreased in the past few years.’

One former Geos teacher claimed that her manager asked her to call students six months before course completion to get them to renew their contracts, and that when the company found out she was leaving, she was asked to tell students that their next teacher would be ‘good’ and to encourage them to stay.

Lafferty responded that he was ‘not aware of any teacher who has phoned a student to try and get them to renew their contracts. In fact, I’d be very strongly opposed to the idea.’ Lafferty added, ‘There is no directive from Geos saying, “You must tell your students the new teacher will be good.”’

I don't know how this quells any rumours about the health of the company or portrays Geos in a favorable manner. Lafferty didn't flat out lie in the interview, but he didn't tell the complete truth, either.

It's true that Geos tells its teachers that sales is part of the job, but he fails to say that it is a significant part of the job. It's the part of the job that reduces managers to tears and causes them to quit when they can't meet their sales targets. It is the source of angry faxes demanding that schools sell more and sign up or renew students. It's the reason why students avoid making eye contact with managers because they know if the manager nabs them, talk will inevitably be about buying more lessons.

The "there is no directive that says you must tell your students the new teacher will be good" are the words of a drone. "Yes sir! No, sir! Three bags full sir! Sell! Sell! Sell for the company!" Poor Chad Lafferty. He's sold his soul to Geos.

I'm late talking about this, but it's worth noting given Hoofin's recent comments on freechoice.jp and health insurance in Japan. After I was asked to take down a letter from a private insurance provider that I posted here, Hoofin went out and did some digging, and came up with a lot of interesting stuff.

1. He found that freechoice.jp's Ron Kessler is connected to HealthOne Japan.
2. In addition to HealthOne, Freechoice may also have links to other sites, including Legend Travel, Legend Travelers, and Nationalhealthinsurance.jp.
3. After Hoofin starts connecting dots, Nationalhealthinsurance.jp goes offline.

If Hoofin's findings are accurate, it makes you wonder if Kessler is honestly fighting for the right for foreigners to choose between national and private health insurance schemes or if he's fighting to protect his health insurance companies or the stakes he may have in them.

The letter that I removed from the blog concluded by urging readers to visit http://www.freechoice.jp/immigration2.asp for more information.Although the page is about "breaking news," as far as I can tell, you can't access it from anywhere within freedomchoice unless you've received the letter or were told about the page by Kessler. Despite the internal fax that apparently softens Immigration's stance on having to enroll in either shakai hoken or kokumin kenko hoken, there's been no independent verification of this to my knowledge. As it stands, the revisions to Guideline 8 are still in effect and immigration offices have signs up reminding people of the changes starting in April.

Moreover, it's difficult to think that Kessler is lobbying the government for change in good faith when he writes on the main page of his website, "Free choice means having the right to choose. A non-Japanese who desires to be on public health care should also not be denied access to it." He's full of it. Foreigners are not being denied access to healthcare in Japan. It is your right and obligation to be enrolled in shakai hoken or kokumin kenko hoken If anything is wrong, it's two things: 1) ignorance by employees and 2) far too many employers, especially in eikaiwa, intentionally not informing their employees of their right to healthcare and foisting some other plan upon them that is no more than travel insurance in disguise.

Can we trust anything on the freechoice website? His claim about Guideline 8 being put on hold hasn't been verified by any other source. Given that he may have incentives to skew things toward private insurance due to his possible connections to HealthOne, the answer has to be, "No."

An LJ reader sent me this letter from his insurance company regarding the new immigration guideline which appears to confirm that the stance on the guideline has been softened. As the letter points out, not being enrolled in a public health plan is insufficient grounds for declining a visa renewal application. It looks like a lot of instructors can breathe a sigh of relief.

Update 11/28: Hoofin makes some salient points on this issue. The focus on Guideline 8 is misplaced in that it doesn't supersede the fact that the law still compels you or your employer to enroll in a national health plan while you are working in Japan. Instead of faxes from Diet members and comments from the Immigration Bureau, we should be seeking answers from the Health Ministry and Social Insurance Agency who have authority over this matter.

Update 12/7: Dmca.com has contacted Let's Japan and informed me that their client requested that this URL be taken down since I posted private and confidential correspondence intended for their client only. On that note, I've removed the letter from this post.

As you are aware, immigration guidelines are set to be changed next April so that you will have to show proof of enrollment in shakai hoken or kokumin kenko hoken when you apply to renew your visa. This is a huge issue for eikaiwa instructors as most are not enrolled in either health plan and are faced with the possibility of having to make hefty back payments upon enrollment.

This change might be on hold, though. According to Ronald Kessler, head of the Free Choice Foundation, which is campaigning for foreigners to be able to opt out of Japan's national health plans and buy their own private coverage, the revisions to the immigration guideline may be scrapped.

The Free Choice Foundation has just received word that an unpopular Immigration guideline is to be repealed.

The news was relayed via a phone call from the office of an Upper House lawmaker* immediately after he had spoken with the Justice Ministry regarding Immigration Guideline No. 8, the mandate that would have required visa applicants to present their social insurance ID cards at the application window. The lawmaker was informed that due to the large number of complaints registered - as well as the communiqué received from the Kobe City Assembly - the Ministry will be deleting (sakujo) Guideline No. 8 from the list of eight guidelines.

Kessler says that the Justice Ministry was overwhelmed by the resistance to the changes and decided to delete the guideline for the time being. No doubt a lot of instructors are going to be very relieved to hear this news.

(h/t ripslyme in the forums)

Let's start an open thread for kicks. I won't call it an End of GEOS thread, but if you have have something to add, comment on it here.

Today is also notable as it marks two years since Nova went bankrupt. Although Nova is a shell of its former self, it's collapse has left its mark on eikaiwa. The final chapter has yet to be written as Sahashi appeals his conviction while trying to avoid hotel visits from gangsters.

What's on your mind?

The latest development in the dirty undertaking of dispatch teaching:

A labor union of foreign workers requested Monday that the Aichi prefectural board of education address the concerns of English-language instructors at public schools who they say are working under illegal contracts.

The General Union, based in the city of Osaka, said an investigation it conducted last month and communications with municipal boards of education show that foreign teaching assistants in 16 school districts in the prefecture are contracted by private language schools or other agents rather than the school boards themselves.

The union charges that by going through agencies, the school boards are "avoiding the obligation of hiring them directly that comes after a certain period of (temporary) employment has elapsed."

It's all slowly coming to a head. Nothing illustrates the situation better than this 2005 letterfrom the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) acknowledging that gyomu itaku (outsourcing contracts) are illegal.

This notice was sent to all prefectural BOEs, and advises that they give preference to JETs, direct hires, and legal dispatch jobs over gyomu itaku with private dispatch companies. It also recommends that skilled ALTs be made permanent employees （正社員）.

Paragraph 3 in the appendix also contains some noteworthy items. It notes that dispatch contracts can only be made with ministry-approved dispatch companies and that BOEs should make sure they are dealing with approved companies before entering into a contract. It also notes that dispatch contracts are valid for 3 years whereupon the ALT must be made a permanent employee.

This letter is the kind of thing that should lay the foundation for ALT positions to be decent jobs, but instead, what we have is a terrible triangle.

BOEs: Lazy and cheap. They want ALTs in classrooms but don't want any of the hassles that come with having to manage foreigners. They know that dispatch companies can be unscrupulous but use them anyway. They like the steady supply of cheap instructors but aren't smart enough to figure out why the teacher turnover is so high.

MEXT: The letter shows that they are aware of illegal hiring practices, but they aren't doing anything beyond issuing guidance. This particular letter was written in 2005, and clearly nothing has been done in the past 4 years. Recall the fate of Samantha, covered by NHK in 2007. Fast forward to the present, and we still have the same abuses happening to ALTs like Robert and Eric.

ALTs: For some unknown reason, despite the information one can find on the internet about dispatch companies and teaching in Japan, teachers still insist on being taken advantage of by their employers. They work for low pay and no benefits because they'd rather not give up on their dream/fantasy/plan of living in Japan.

Where is the breaking point? There is absolutely no justification to put up with such terrible working conditions. At what point does the whole mess collapse under the weight of its own bullshit? Who takes the first step in breaking the triangle? Do the BOEs smarten up? Does MEXT do something beyond issuing memos? Do ALTs quit in droves or strike for better working conditions?

The Japan Times ran a couple of articles last week on the coming changes in health insurance for foreigners in Japan.

As you are probably already aware, starting next April, you will have to show proof of enrollment in shakai hoken (SH) or kokumin kenko hoken (KKH) when you apply to renew your visa. Jenny Uechi reminds us of the law:

If you are working for a company in Japan, chances are that you are (or need to be) enrolled in shakai hoken, in which you pay half of your health insurance premiums and your company pays the rest. There isn't much ambiguity about shakai hoken: If a company employs more than five people, and an employee is working more than 20 hours a week for a period longer than 2 months, the company is obligated to submit paperwork for an employee's health insurance and pension to the Social Insurance Agency within five days of hiring. With shakai hoken comes the kosei nenkin, or pension plan; the two are a set, and enrollment is mandatory whether you plan to retire in Japan or not.

Meanwhile, people who are unemployed, self-employed, employed by a small firm or retired should be enrolled in kokumin kenko hoken (national health insurance). People paying into this system have to sign up on their own for kokumin nenkin (the national pension) at their city ward office.

Unfortunately a lot of English instructors are unaware of the law and find themselves in a position like "Patrick Johnson:"

Patrick Johnson (not his real name), an assistant language teacher, has recently had to fork out over ¥700,000 in back payments for the last two years he has been living in Japan without national health insurance. He has just paid his final monthly installment of ¥75,000, he explains with a tired sigh of relief. He used to pay for private insurance, but has left the scheme now he is covered by kokumin kenko hoken.

Johnson, who works for a large corporation with far more than five employees, is well aware that he should technically be enrolled in shakai hoken, where his company pays 50 percent of his premiums. But because his contract states that he only works 29.5 hours — well over the 20-hour limit but .5 of an hour below the limit that usually triggers a government crackdown — the company can instead oblige him to sign up for the other option, where he has to bear 100 percent of the cost.

"You know how the system works," he says wearily, as though hour-fudging is a given in Japan's language-teaching industry.

Johnson reflects on his experience with more resignation than rage. Last year, he says, the city started sending letters asking him to pay health insurance. Since he already had private coverage through his company, he did not think much of it, but started panicking when the city approached his company asking for his bank information. Then one day it happened — he saw ¥50,000 had vanished from his bank account

His experience is typical of most instructors. They are generally unaware that their employers should be enrolling them in an insurance scheme and are surprised to learn that they owe up to two years in back payments when they finally do get properly enrolled. This is also one of the reasons why many would like to avoid SH or KKH--they are expensive.

Which brings me to Ronald Kessler's Zeit Gist column in which he argues that foreigners in Japan have special healthcare needs and that for vital reasons of communication, level of service, and repatriation of remains, foreigners should be able to presumably opt out of SH or KKH and choose their own plans.

There are a few problems with Mr. Kessler's argument, however. First, enrollment in SH and KKH is mandated by law, and, lke taxes, you can't choose to not pay. He also forgets to mention that if foreigners do need extra coverage, they can get it from one of Japan's private insurance companies. This is in fact what many Japanese do to cover the gap between SH or KKH should they be hospitalized for an extended period of time. Moreover, he fails to provide any specifics as to what other health insurance plans make them preferable to Japan's public ones. What are the cheaper and more comprehensive health insurance plans? Are they universally accepted across Japan?

One point I agree with him on is that it is curious that Immigration, not the Social Insurance Agency, will effectively be enforcing enrollment. This shifts the burden of enrollment on the instructors, not their employers.

If the government wants to enforce enrollment in this odd manner, then that's there prerogative. Personally, I don't see this an issue of choice insomuch as it is a labour issue. As has been mentioned on LJ before, employers play fast and loose with working hours, drawing up 29.5 hour work weeks so they can avoid having to enroll their instructors in a health plan even if their instructors are physically at school on a full-time basis.

Instead of putting the burden on instructors to enroll, the Social Insurance Agency should be cracking down on the schools who shirk their legal obligations.

One thing is for sure, there will be more than a few instructors who are hit for back payments when they are ultimately forced to enroll. There may even be a few who are unable to renew their visas.

It's time for instructors to be prepared. If your visa is up for renewal next spring, make sure you have some money set aside in case you are have to make back payments. While costly, you can negotiate with local governments and set up a payment schedule that fits your budget or even get your payments reduced.

It's also time to start making some noise about your working conditions. Even "Patrick Johnson" knew his employer was gaming the system yet he turned a blind eye. Don't let your employer rob you of your right to healthcare in Japan. For all its warts and deficiencies, SH and KKH cover you, no questions asked. The choice involved here is not which plan is better for foreigners in Japan, but choosing to stand up to your employer and demanding your right to healthcare coverage.

Old news is fun! The Japan Times reports on Yano Research's survey on the foreign language learning market in Japan, which I wrote about this at the beginning of August and touched on again earlier this month. The only difference with today's article is that the JT spoke with somebody at GEOS.

Susumu Ikegami, a spokesman for Geos Corp., which runs English-language schools in Japan and other countries, said they have been facing a serious decline.

"As the number of students decreased, the number of classrooms also declined," said Ikegami, who declined to give the figure for the classrooms.

Ikegami said the market's downward trend began about five years ago, although the reason is hard to pinpoint. However, he pointed out that the bankruptcy of Nova Corp. in October 2007 had some impact.

It's amazing that Ikegami can't figure out why business is down. You can try and blame NOVA, Lehman Brothers, or swine flu, but you can only wring so much mileage out of those excuses. The article ends with this brilliant plan:

However, Ikegami of Geos said the overall outlook for the language-school market in Japan doesn't appear bright.

"We have 53 schools overseas, and they are doing pretty well. So, while there is the chance of growth from a global outlook, we don't really have a good picture for the Japanese market. Rather than getting more students, we are working to run the business more economically," Ikegami said.

Things don't look good down the road, so let's cut costs? That's it? The market has been sliding for years and GEOS is still at the cut costs/efficiency stage? The article is titled "Few answers for the language market." Is the problem about finding answers to the downturn or the dreadful way in which eikaiwa schools conduct business?

My guess is that it's the latter, with NOVA being the straw that broke the camel's back. All the schools really care about is putting bums in chairs and vacuuming their students' wallets, and NOVA was the poster child of this kind of behavior. METI's press release　describes it in vivid detail, from pressure sales to exaggerated advertising to underhanded refund practices to outright thievery and deception. Other schools have tried to blame its instructors for the failings of the company or sue them for exercising their right to strike.

But the bad behavior doesn't stop at eikaiwa. Dispatch teaching is just as bad. Not only does the job have no benefits, instructors are disposable employees that boards of education pick and choose from and discard at will. Although teaching English looks promising in elementary schools, it should not be forgotten that the potentially lucrative job scene hinges on school budgets. BOEs with no money are more likely to stick with a Japanese teacher than hire an ALT.

The homestay business is more of the same. Gateway21 tore a page from the NOVA playbook with 950 million yen vanishing into thin air as the end result.

To put it bluntly, the rot is extensive, and teachers and students know it. But if the Susumu Ikegamis of the business can't understand why business is bad, then there's not much hope for them. What's the answer that eikaiwas should be looking for? How about: Stop abusing your employees and ripping off your customers?