TOZA Goes Bankrupt

TOZA used to be a mid-sized eikaiwa until it went bankrupt in 1998. The TOZA situation built up slowly over a period of a few months. I didn't know it at the time, but all of the teachers at TOZA hadn't been paid their complete salaries in 4 months. They had received 20%, 30% depending on how bad their situation was; usually just enough to pay the rent at the gaijin house. They hired me in February of 1998 and nobody told me that they hadn't been paid since Christmas. I was surprised that nobody told me. Their response was," If we told you, would you have worked here?"

Of course not-TOZA needed teachers and they thought the situation could get better. TOZA training was me going to another school, teaching the senior teacher's classes while he smoked out in the street or flirted with a student. He would then tell me how to do the paperwork.
"What chapter did you teacher today."
" Chapter 4."
"Great, write that down in the book." So much for constructive feedback.

I asked some teachers why they never quit. Their response was that if they did, they would never be paid. Some of the staff were owed over 400,000 yen (roughly $4,000US if you assume 100yen=$1US). Could you just simply quit and walk away from that amount of money?

On May 9, around 7pm,a fax came into the school that was snapped up by the Japanese staff pretty quickly and translated to us. It said the TOZA schools were going to be closed tomorrow. Another fax came from the Japanese Teacher Association and it recommended the Japanese teachers not to come in to work tomorrow. Around 7:30, a young woman came into the school inquiring about lessons. Guess what? Management went right to work, interviewing her, giving her a level check and talking about prices.

I went out into the lobby between classes and stared with my mouth agape.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Interviewing a student."
" Why?"
"It's my job."
"You don't have a job. Why are we even here now? Why don't we go across the street to the izakaya and curse the name of the president of TOZA?"

Was the manager being dutiful or being a pinhead?

Two months later, TOZA was bankrupt, the schools closed, the students left with worthless tickets for lessons, the teachers still hadn't been paid and I was in the Labor Standards Office in Shinjuku telling them my version of the events. They asked me about the texts I used and my opinion of the president of TOZA. Just as they asked me that question, I heard a voice in the next room shouting, "I think he's fucking asshole!" My response was milder: " He is a dishonest guy. I feel worse about the time he took away from me. Money is money and of course you need it. But, the mornings I got up and put on a tie and jacket, the Sundays I worked, the days my wife was home alone and I was at school- that's what bugs me."

Well, the Tokyo government gave me 70% of the salary I was owed and promised an investigation of the TOZA president. I haven't heard anything since.

Still, as teachers, we got screwed. Betty lost 450,000 yen in salary; John was owed 350,000. Freddie, like me, was owed 320,000 and got 280,000. I wonder about the guys living hand to mouth in the gaijin houses. I guess they just left the country with a very bad impression of Japanese business ethics.

Some teachers didn't exactly go away empty handed. They liberated TVs, VCRs, tape recorders and even a white board from the schools in a "helicopters- on- the- roof, get-out-of-Vietnam-mentality" binge of looting. I managed to get my hands on a beer pitcher.

My two and half months at TOZA were short and I didn't get to know the teachers all that well. The ones I met, I genuinely liked. They were good people. But, it still baffles me how they let TOZA rip them off for so long.