Things just keep looking bleaker and bleaker for Nova. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun [in Japanese], as of June 20, Nova's classes will no longer be eligible to accept money from the government retraining program for the next five years. Since 1999, Nova has received 16 billion yen from the government in assistance that covered 71,000 students. Given Nova's scandalous behavior, it would be more appropriate to say Nova bilked the government out of 16 billion yen.
Internet forums and blogs are now rife with speculation about Nova's fate. Will it survive, will it get a government bailout, or will is go bankrupt? At this point in time, all anyone can do is speculate.
News of NOVA's punishment has been widely reported in the media. The nuts and bolts are are this: For a period of six months, NOVA will not be able solicit, accept, or conclude any new contracts exceeding one year. This means no contracts for courses more than a year or courses longer than 70 hours. Existing contracts are not affected by METI's punishment.
The media has covered the basics. Here's The Japan Times:
According to the Asahi Shimbun, NOVA has been ordered by the Ministry of Trade, Economy and Industry to partially suspend operations for six months during which NOVA will not be able solicit, accept, or conclude any new contracts exceeding one year. METI found NOVA's behavior to be in violation of the Specific Commercial Transaction Law.
This is from last week's Classifieds in the Japan Times, but it's a keeper. Eikaiwa is fraught with tales of low pay, insane students, insane managers, and general stupidity that would make Scott Adams drool with excitement.
NOVA is back in the news again with articles in the Yomiuri and Asahi shimbun detailing how NOVA just can't make its problems go away. These are quick-and-dirty translations, so if I've gone horribly wrong somewhere, let me know.
I stumbled upon an interesting nugget concerning NOVA's recent legal troubles. If you read this article on Nikkei BP Net [in Japanese], as a result of NOVA's loss in the Supreme Court, METI has tightened its interpretation of the Specific Commercial Transaction Law and is now not even allowing a "rational" reason to recalculate service costs when providing a refund.
The Japan Times had a couple of articles today on the March in March, a union drive for equal rights in the workplace for foreign workers. It's a must-read since it exposes eikaiwa for what it is: a dead-end McJob. The first article is here.
This sums up the essence of the problems in eikaiwa:
It seems that Nova is in serious trouble. The front page of the Asahi shimbun this morning carried an article about Nova being raided on February 14 by the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on suspicion of violating the Specified Commercial Transactions Law.
