Japan Times

Cram school operator, Eikoh Inc., has bought Shane English School.

Cram school operator Eikoh Inc. said Friday it has acquired Shane English School to strengthen its English-language education for elementary school children ahead of the planned compulsory teaching of the language for fifth- and sixth-graders.

When GEOS went under, I suggested that the event to the die-off of the dinosaurs where the large schools would give way to the small, furry schools. Richard Smart has an uplifting and positive piece in The Japan Times on some thriving, smaller schools.(Pay no attention to the jaded guy he quotes throughout the article, though.)

Yesterday's Have Your Say column in the Japan Times carried a reply to Richard Smart's article on eikaiwa being on the ropes. The author of the letter suggests that the media have not been reporting on the problems with the G.communication takeover of GEOS.

I'm no prude, but I wonder what the Japan Times is thinking when they run two articles in the Sunday paper about porn actress awards and hostess clubs with porn stars. How are these "specials" or even relevant to a newspaper? Or is it that they miss the readership they used to get with the Tokyo Confidential column they ended not long ago?