nova

Sparse reporting on the trial, but this is what happened in the last two court sessions.

As a postscript to Sahashi's trial, I noticed this short blurb in the news:

「うさぎ」ＣＭも再開　「ＮＯＶＡ」再拡大目指す

ワンマン社長と呼ばれた猿橋望被告（５７）の手で国内最大手に成長したＮＯＶＡの経営破綻（はたん）から１年半。行き場を失った受講生の救済や外国人講師の雇用など、課題山積の事業を引き継いだジー・コミュニケーション（名古屋市）は、約半年で黒字化を達成。今年３月には、かつて人気を集めたマスコット「ＮＯＶＡうさぎ」のテレビＣＭも再開した。

経営破綻後には、サウナや茶室付きの「豪華すぎる」社長室が公開され、企業のイメージは大きく傷ついた。社長室の机に飾られていた「ＮＯＶＡうさぎ」のぬいぐるみが繰り返し報じられたこともあり、ＣＭは長く封印された。

Sahashi's trial began today, and as expected, he admitted to taking 320 million yen from the NOVA employee's shayukai fund and apologized for the trouble he caused. His lawyers, however, claim that Sahashi's actions do not amount to a crime since as he was acting in the interests of the company.

The trial of former NOVA president Nozomu Sahashi is slated to start tomorrow, June 1, in the Osaka District Court. You'll recall that he was indicted last July on charges of embezzling ¥320 million from an employment benefit fund.

G.communication has limped along since it scraped up the remains of NOVA in 2007 and tried to put it back together. Sales have not been good and complaints have been piling up, so management apparently decided to write a memo about it. Mr. X in the forums provides a copy of the memo making the rounds.

The Sankei shimbun has a story describing a new insurance scheme for consumers that partially insures should the language school or beauty salons they are using goes bankrupt. The system started this month and is expected to see a growing number of participants.

At the beginning of July in 2008, after former NOVA president Nozomu Sahashi was charged with embezzlement, he was also hit with a charge of failing to pay ¥105 million in salary to 400 workers:

The Osaka Labor Bureau sent papers to prosecutors Monday on failed English language school operator Nova Corp. and its former president, Nozomu Sahashi, on suspicion of violating the Labor Standards Law for failing to pay wages to Nova workers.

Sahashi's legal woes are just beginning.

I appears that Sahashi's trail for embezzlement has yet to begin, but arguments in the ¥16 million class action lawsuit were heard in Osaka District Court on Thursday.

Not that you need more reminders about the fall of Nova and the chaos over the past year, but Jordan Pearson offers an excellent account of the collapse.

It would have sucked to be Jason Cornish:

Things are apparently looking good at G.communication. Its president, Masaki Inayoshi, sat down with the Chunichi Shimbun to talk about the past year.