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

While I'm on the subject of TV, Japan for Sustainability has this interesting bit:

As a special one-day environmental event, Japan's public broadcaster, Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), shortened the airtime of its educational TV channel on December 29, 2008, to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and save electricity.

The shorter airtime was instituted to remind both the broadcaster and viewers that daily broadcasting consumes a large quantity of electricity and results in a considerable amount of CO2 emissions. NHK expects such an event will promote efforts in energy saving and CO2 reduction.

The educational TV channel normally broadcasts from 5:00 a.m. to 2:50 a.m. the following day. On that day, however, the channel aired programs for only nine hours, from 12:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., shortening the broadcast by 12 hours and 50 minutes. While broadcasting was suspended, NHK's approximately 3,100 analog transmitting stations across the nation stopped sending TV signals, which resulted in saving about 17,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, or a reduction of some 9.4 tons of CO2 emissions, compared to a regular broadcasting day.

If only Japan's commercial broadcasters would do the same, the nation would have the lowest CO2 emissions on earth and save us from the mountains of crap the serve on a regular basis. Snark aside, NHK's move demonstrates that not using energy is the best way to reduce emissions. There's nothing worth watching on TV in Japan anyway, so you might as well do your part and tune out and turn the TV off.

This:

Man gets drunk, takes off his clothes off, and howls at the moon normally doesn't warrant any coverage on the news, but since it's Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, member of SMAP, the media goes into a frenzy. Here we have Fuji TV recounting the story with a scale model of the neighborhood just in case viewers have trouble visualizing the park Kusanagi was in.

Reporting on celebrities and their scandals is low-hanging fruit for the media in Japan. Despite the distinctive lack of talent among Japan's TV personalities, the incident reveals the close relationship those personalities have with media outlets and their sponsors:

The reaction from private and public sponsors was immediate. Toyota Motor Corp. and Procter & Gamble responded by halting all ads featuring the pop star, even his frequent TV commercials.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, which recruited Kusanagi to promote the nationwide conversion to terrestrial digital broadcasting, said it will immediately stop distributing flyers and posters with Kusanagi in them.

"It's embarrassing. He is a character who is calling for public understanding of the cancellation of analog broadcasting, which will burden the people. I have no choice but to think he is a disgusting person," communications minister Kunio Hatoyama angrily told reporters.

Likewise, the Association for Promotion of Digital Broadcasting has decided to stop airing Kusanagi commercials.

Kusanagi's agent, Johnny and Associates, later in the day released the statement: "We deeply apologize for causing lots of trouble and worry to fans and many other people."

The idol will refrain from entertainment activities for the time being, the company said Thursday evening.

Kusanagi's "crime" amounts to nothing more than bad stupid behavior, but his actions immediately elicited reactions from the government and one of Japan's largest companies, Toyota. In other words, Kusanagi's drunkenness is going to cost his sponsors a lot of money.

The TV news could spend their time reporting on and informing the public about issues that matter, but there's no bigger story for broadcasters when sponsors start pulling their ads.

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 .

Recently a number of complaints have been received by Head Office from students regarding their lessons. They feel no sense of progress and that their lessons are monotonous and failing to support their advancement. They claim that instructors seem to lack a sense of responsibility towards their own self-improvement, and as a result make little or no effort to increase the quality of their lessons. They will not re-sign if such a situation continues.

As you are all aware, student motivation is closely tied to a sense of progress in their learning. The current level up rate is very low, reflecting a very slow rate of progress. This means that expectations are not being met. In order to reverse the trend and address the negative impact it is having on students' decisions to continue learning at our schools, instructors need to be more conscious of student progress, and more conscientious and resourceful in regards to facilitating level up, and in developing their own professional skills and ability to keep students motivated and improving.

Instructor responsibilities include:

Lesson preparation - instructors should consider past records and study histories as much as possible in order to identify the specific needs of each student and make the best choice of lesson material and lesson objectives based on this.

Lesson quality - lesson stages should be tailored to meet student needs. Techniques and focuses should be selected and adapted throughout the lesson to maximise the benefit to the students' communicative competence as they progress through the unit.

Direct feedback - specific feedback should be given at all appropriate stages of the lesson, and in addition specific advice for improvement should be given verbally to students at the end of every lesson. Students should be aware of their own progress through the feedback they receive, and be able to recognize the efforts of the instructor to help them raise their level of performance.

Lesson records - entries in student files must be complete. This includes a recommendation, in the form of one or more checked boxes, or ideally a written comment. Written comments should be professional, objective and useful. They should be written in clear, simple English.

All of the above must be observed in order to motivate learners and most effectively assist and enable student progress towards the most tangible form of advancement - Level Up.

Level Ups - at every stage in a student's Nova career instructors need to be assessing and responding to the development of student proficiency in relation to the requirements of the next level so that timely Level Up recommendations can be made.

Thank you for your continued efforts,

Human Resource Enhancement Headquarters.

Got that? Business is bad, so the instructors are to blame. Give better lessons, give more feedback, submit neatly-written paperwork. What's missing is any recognition by management of what problems it's facing--aside from those ubiquitous "complaints"--and what plan they have for addressing those problems. It would be nice if management actually told its employees what is plans to do instead of squashing morale by telling instructors to be better.

Despite Sahashi scamming hundreds of thousands of his customers and staff and instructors out of their money, and running the company into the ground, G.communication president, Masaki Inayoshi, seems to believe that the NOVA brand is still salvageable. As far as I can tell, since taking over NOVA, G.communication hasn't put any effort into rebuilding the brand. Neo-NOVA's first and only TV commercial this year recycles the same old NOVA logo and bunny. What could possibly go wrong with reusing the logo and character from a company associated with fraud on a massive scale? At most, G.communication has taken the old NOVA system and its textbooks, slapped a thin coat of paint on it, and hoped for the best. They should have dumped the logo and bunny long ago.

But there's more! Another reader provides more hilarity:

In addition to that sad, morale-degrading fax, theres [sic] other news: `apparently`, staff now will be required TO PAY electricity bills that are in excess!! No joke!! Explains now why theyve [sic] been turning the lights off during lessons.

I don't know what "excess" means here, but if they're turning off the lights to cut costs, this should save NOVA hundreds of yen annually! G.communication has done things on the cheap from the beginning, and now they're scraping the bottom of the barrel for ways to save money. It's a bad sign when you have to pinch your pennies this tightly. Is this what's happening in neo-NOVA? Has G.communication realized that taking over the smoldering wreck of NOVA was a bad idea?

A propos my comment on now being a bad time to come to Japan, an example of how the economic meltdown affects English teachers:

Though many municipalities plan to employ native English speakers or bilingual people to teach public primary schools' fifth- and sixth-grade students' English classes in April, a recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey showed that some cash-strapped municipalities are reluctant to do so for financial reasons.

[...]

However, some cash-strapped municipalities have no prospect of employing assistant language teachers. Yamagata Prefecture's Shinjo municipal government, which is required by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry to reconstruct its finances, has scheduled 15 or more English classes at its 10 primary schools, but has no plans to employ assistant language teachers.

"We had to put priority on measures to strengthen the earthquake-resistance of school buildings, which is more urgent," an official of the Shinjo municipal board of education said.

The Okushiricho town government in Hokkaido has not considered employing assistant teachers. It plans to hold 35 English classes in fiscal 2009, but the classes will be taught by Japanese teachers.

It's also bad for foreign students:

According to the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), the number of foreign students studying in Japan at universities, graduate schools and junior colleges has been on the rise in recent years. As of May 1 last year, a record 123,829 foreign students were studying in Japan, up 5,331 from the previous year. About 60 percent of the foreign students came from China, followed by students from South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, according to JASSO.

Many students from Asia hope to work in Japan. However, only 10,262 students were able to obtain working visas in 2007 after finding jobs. Many students ended up returning to their home countries after failing to find work.

The employment situation for foreign students has gone from bad to worse due to the economic downturn. According to the Tokyo Employment Service Center for Foreigners--a job-placement office for foreign residents--there were 252 job listings targeting foreign students graduating in March available at the center as of Jan. 31, down 54 from the same period last year.

According to the organization, it is mainly small and medium-size companies that seek employees through the center. However, general manager Kazuo Hirasawa said companies across the spectrum are cutting the number of foreign students they hire.

And it's terrible if you happen to be a . The Japanese government would like you to leave:

Japan is offering $3,000 for a plane ticket home to some foreigners who have lost their jobs, a sign of just how bad the economic slump has gotten.

The program, which began Wednesday, applies only to several hundred thousand South Americans of Japanese descent on special visas for factory work. The government's motivation appears to be three-fold: help the workers get home, ease pressure on the domestic labor market and potentially get thousands of people off the unemployment rolls.

"The program is to respond to a growing social problem," said Hiroshi Yamashita, an official at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, referring to joblessness, which has climbed to a three-year high of 4.4 percent.

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.

The impetus for the plan came about in wake of NOVA's bankruptcy in 2007 system which left the company owing some ¥56 billion to 300 thousand students. Last September, Shinjuku-based Human Academy got together with Ken School and two other businesses set up the Educational Assurance Corporation of Japan (EACJ).

The EACJ accepts 40% of course/service fees from member businesses and holds the money in a trust account at a bank. The remaining 60% is for reassurance contracts with an underwriter so that customers can be refunded the unused portions of their contracts in the event that an EACJ member business goes bankrupt.* The EACJ also helps students find new schools for those who wish to continue their studies.

The head of the EACJ, Toshikazu Iizuka, points out that there have been many caes where lesson fees that have been paid up front have been diverted for use as operating capital instead of being separately managed. Should that business go bankrupt, its customers will likely never see their money again. Iizuka says that his system brings consumers some peace-of-mind. The EACJ wants more schools to join and hopes that the system spreads among consumer affairs groups.

Nihon Beauty, which runs the esthetique salon Apple Mind, joined the EACJ in March. Fees paid-in-advance are held in a trust account, and if the company experiences any trouble in offering its services in the future, its customers can be refunded the unused portion of the fees. After NOVA collapsed, the salon switched from accepting all fees up front to a pay-as-go system due to customer concerns about entering into long-term contracts.

Other business are also doing things similar to that of the EACJ. Zwei, a wedding service company, offers insurance for some its services. From May, GABA will set aside half of unused lesson fees as a way of easing any concerns from its customers.

The article ends by noting that there is always risk with expensive contracts lasting more than a year. The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan points out that in addition to consultations about contract troubles with language schools, they've noticed inquires about bankruptcy (foreshadowing, perhaps?). Before signing up long-term, they recommend a short contract to begin with so that you can decide if the service is any good and is what you're looking for. As always, people need to find out about how refunds are calculated and the details of the plan they are paying for before signing on the dotted line.

Comment: This sounds like a good idea, but I don't see how it will work. First, it only protects its member businesses. NOVA gets mentioned a few time in the article because it was such a spectacular failure, but how do you protect consumers from future NOVAs if these businesses don't join the EACJ? The organization is apparently aware of this as Question 8 on their FAQ page admits that their insurance scheme only covers its members. As of this writing, the EACJ has 12 members, comprised mainly of fashion, design, and computer schools. No language conversation school has registered. With so few members, the organization has a long way to go before it garners any credibility.

*Question 9 of the FAQ describes how refunds are paid out if a member business goes bankrupt. If you paid 1.2 million yen for a one-year course running from April to March the following year, and the school goes bust in October, you would receive a refund of ¥500,000 (¥700,000 used for the April-October period less the ¥500,000 in unused fees for remainder of the contract).

Original article

英会話やエステ業界に拡大　前払い金、返還します

2009.4.6 08:11

■経営破綻時、保証制度で安心呼びかけ

語学スクールやエステなどの業界で、会社が破綻（はたん）した際に受講料などの返還を保証する取り組みが始まっている。英会話学校大手「ＮＯＶＡ」の経営破綻を機に消費者の不安が広がる中、安心して利用してもらうのが狙いだ。業界では「制度の有無をサービスを選ぶ際の目安にしてほしい」と呼びかけている。（中曽根聖子）

<<共同で保全機構設立>>

「おたくは大丈夫？」

「倒産したら前払いした受講料はどうなるのか」

一昨年１０月にＮＯＶＡが経営破綻して以降、資格取得講座などを運営する「ヒューマンアカデミー」（東京都新宿区）には、受講生や保護者からの問い合わせが相次いだ。

ＮＯＶＡのケースでは約３０万人の受講生が前納した約５６０億円に上る受講料が返還されず、大きな社会問題になった。こうした中、安心して学べる仕組みを作ろうと昨年９月、ヒューマンアカデミーとパソコン教室「ＫＥＮスクール」（千代田区）など業界４社が共同で「学習保全機構」（中央区）を設立した。

同機構は、受講料の４割を預かり、銀行の信託口座に保管、残り６割は保険会社に保証料を支払うことで加盟社が破綻した際に、未受講分の代金を全額返還する。また、学習の継続を希望する人には機構が他校の講座を紹介。制度は今月から本格始動、順次対象講座を拡大していく予定だ。

<<イメージアップに>>

顔専門のエステサロン「アップルマインド」を展開する「日本ビューティコーポレーション」（中央区）も今年３月から、前払い金の保全措置を開始。顧客が一括払いしたコース契約代金を銀行に信託し、事業継続が困難になった場合でもサービス未提供分の料金が全額戻ってくるという。

同サロンでもＮＯＶＡの破綻以降、「長期契約は心配」と１回ごとに都度払いする新規顧客が増えた。

「肌質改善などを目的とするエステは、割安な長期プランで定期的に通っていただくほうが、お客さまにとってもメリットが大きい。不安を払拭（ふっしょく）して業界のイメージアップにつなげたい」。エステ業界初の制度導入に踏み切った同社の大町有利子さんは、その理由を説明する。

<<短期のお試しを>>

同様の取り組みはすでに、結婚紹介サービス大手「ツヴァイ」（千代田区）など一部企業が実施。昨年５月から、未受講分のレッスン料の５０％を保全する個別英会話指導の「ＧＡＢＡ」（目黒区）は「利用者の不安を解消する材料になっている」と成果を強調する。学習保全機構は他校にも加盟を呼びかけており、消費者保護に向けた制度の普及に期待が高まる。

同機構の飯塚利和社長は「受講生から預かった前払い金は本来、経営資産とは別管理されるべきだが、実際には会社の運転資金などに使うケースも多く、倒産した場合には戻ってこない可能性がある」と指摘。「今回の取り組みは、万一の際に利用者の学びの機会を確保し、安心、安全を支えるのが目的。スクール選びの目安にしてもらえれば」と話す。

ただ、１年を超えるような長期、高額の契約にはリスクがつきものだ。

国民生活センター相談部の狐塚知子さんは「語学教室に関しては中途解約を巡るトラブルに加え、最近は倒産に関する相談もみられる。サービスの質や内容が自分に合うかどうか、まずは短期で試して見極めることも大切。契約時には、中途解約時の精算方法やプランの内容をしっかり確認して」と呼びかけている。

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?

Tokyo Confidential wasn't nearly as salacious as the Mainichi's WaiWai column, but I wonder why any newspaper that wants to be taken seriously and portends to be "the world's window on Japan" would legitimize porn by running "specials" that essentially advertise an awards show.

Like WaiWai, the problem with running this kind of content is that it reflects poorly on the Japan Times. Do they really not care about what they print or are they more interested in attracting eyeballs to their website?

In light of the comments rumours here about GEOS's troubles or impending doom, I'll start a thread here to entertain those concerns. If you want to talk GEOS, do it in comments here. I have no idea whether the claims about GEOS teachers not getting paid are true or not. Judging by the lack of information and outrage in other forums around the internet, I assume that it's nothing more than a rumour.

I have no idea how GEOS is doing financially, but a reader noticed last October that . The page is back online, but now states that GEOS is hiring only within Japan:

Kita Nihon Region looks after Hokkaido, Tohoku, Tochigi.At this time GEOS is only hiring from within Japan.

Applicants MUST be currently living in Japan.

Interviews take place in Japan. All applicants are REQUIRED to have a bachelor's degree, be a native English speaker and have a proper work visa. Sorry there are no exceptions.

I'm going to make a wild guess and say that they are trying to cut costs. It's a lot cheaper and faster to hire people already in Japan and get them working than it is to find new teachers abroad and hold their hands every step of the way.

The end of recruiting overseas means that it's become more difficult to come to Japan and work. Many moons ago, I was hired by GEOS in Vancouver and they of course took care of everything from some basic "training" to helping arrange my flight and visa. If I never had this support, I'm certain I never would have made it to Japan.

There you have it. I can't say if GEOS is in any dire financial trouble, but the change in their hiring practices suggests they are cutting costs. What's the word in GEOS?

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.

According to the bureau, Sahashi, 56, is suspected of failing to pay 105 million yen in wages to 400 Nova workers.

Among the 400, 134 were Japanese staffers who did not receive salaries for September, totaling 33 million yen, and 266 were foreign instructors who received no wages for October, totaling 72 million yen.

Sahashi has claimed his failing to pay wages is not a violation of the law. He was quoted by labor officials as saying, "I feel responsible as the [former] president of the company, but I did what I could do, like putting my own money into the business."

By the end of the month, he had managed to wriggle out of the charge because prosecutors couldn't determine if the failure to pay the wages was deliberate or not.

The Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office announced Tuesday it will not indict the former president of Nova Corp. for failing to pay the salaries of non-Japanese teachers and Japanese personnel.

Nozomu Sahashi, 56, is already under indictment for embezzling ¥320 million from reserve funds for corporate workers at the failed foreign-language school chain.

Prosecutors said they couldn't determine whether Sahashi's failure to pay ¥105 million in salary to 400 workers for September and October was deliberate or the result of the company's poor financial state. Sahashi had spent ¥2 billion of his personal wealth in a failed attempt to save Nova, which went bankrupt in October.

Sent to prosecutors in June, the case alleged violation of the labor standards law for failure to pay salaries.

It looked as if he had dodged a bullet, but in late October, two former instructors petitioned the Osaka District Public Prosectuor's Office to re-examine their decision.

The good news is that they have succeeded in getting the decision overturned.

An independent panel formed by court-entrusted citizens has ruled unjust last year's decision by prosecutors not to slap criminal charges on the failed English conversation school operator Nova Corp. and its former president for failing to pay salaries to foreign instructors and employees, the panel said Tuesday.

The decision was made by Osaka's No. 2 committee for the inquest of prosecution, which urged the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office to reopen investigations into Nova and former Nova President Nozomu Sahashi, 57.

The panel found that Nova and Sahashi were aware of a revenue shortfall, ran the language school chain on a hand-to-mouth basis, and continued to hire instructors and employees without any clear prospect of ensuring the source of their salaries.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare filed with the prosecutors in June 2008 an investigative report on Nova and Sahashi on suspicion of violating the labor standards law for failing to pay about 105 million yen in salaries to some 400 language instructors and employees in September and October 2007.

But in July 2008, the prosecutors decided against indicting Nova and Sahashi, saying they did not intentionally fail to pay the salaries.

I like how that last sentence is worded. It sounds as if Sahashi was so busy that he simply forgot to pay his instructors.

This doesn't mean that the instructors will be paid, however. The article notes that the panel's decision is non-binding but usually results in re-investigations. Still, it's a small victory and one step forward in ultimately holding Sahashi to accountability.

Jaw-dropping idiocy from Fox News assholes:

I could rant about how Canada has been doing more than its share of the fighting and dying in Afghanistan and how incredibly dumb it is to mock an ally, but the stupidity is overwhelming. What makes the piece particularly offensive is that it aired the day four Canadians were killed by a roadside bomb.

Red Eye, however, is not a real "news" show like the regular crap served up during the day. Instead, it's supposed to be some sort of comedy/satire/edgy show. Apparently,

• making fun of people ("Andrew Leslie, an unusual name for a man," "They're getting manicures, pedicures...")
• insulting an entire nation ("This is not a smart country")
• chest beating (“Isn't this the perfect time to invade this ridiculous country?” America is the "Most powerful country in the universe")

passes for satire or is supposed to be funny or edgy.

If that's comedy, it makes me want to weep.

Fuck you, Fox News.

Update 3/24

The outrage over Red Eye has forced FOX to do some damage control:

Gutfeld issued an apology Monday afternoon saying, "I realize that my words may have been misunderstood. It was not my intent to disrespect the brave men, women and families of the Canadian military, and for that I apologize."

But the host also seemed to defend his program, adding "Red Eye is a satirical take on the news, in which all topics are addressed in a lighthearted, humorous and ridiculous manner."

Sadly, this is a non-apology. When he says "I realize that my words may have been misunderstood" what he means is that it's the viewers' fault for not getting the joke. It makes you wonder what he really meant if he wasn't smearing the Canadian military.

If Canada wasn't fighting a war, the jokes wouldn't have attracted any attention. In fact, they might have drawn some cheap laughs. But the show aired as Canada was bringing back 4 of its soldiers from Afghanistan who were killed by a roadside bomb. That's what angered Canadians.

My apologies to the Canadian military, they probably could at least beat the Belgians.

He's not sorry. What an asshole.

I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I follow the sport. It's been impossible to avoid seeing the results of "Samurai Japan" given their success. They've been playing well and don't seem to miss Ichiro's bat. However, for a tournament that is supposed to spread the goodness of baseball around the world, Japan will play Korea for the fifth time in the tournament.

Jason Coskrey in the Japan Times writes:

The World Baseball Classic may involve 16 nations, but this year's tournament has looked more like a Japan-South Korea invitational.

The two Asian nations have faced each other four times in the WBC and will meet for a fifth time in the final if Japan defeats the United States in its semifinal game on Sunday.

There's a saying that familiarity breeds contempt, and it's likely many fans are growing weary of Japan facing South Korea at the WBC.

Nobody expects the WBC to be perfect in its second tournament — the first WBC was held in 2006 — but a pair of teams possibly facing each other five times begs for a format change.

Adding more teams or mixing up the second round groupings could be one way to combat the problem.

Simply shipping Japan and South Korea to different locations in the second round would have eliminated two meetings between the countries.

I think he's being too diplomatic here. He should be asking how on earth two teams can meet five times in a single tournament. It seems like an easy thing to fix, but nobody has done anything about it. In the 2006 WBC, Korea had a winning record of 6-1 (the best record of all teams in the tournament) but never made it to the final match because they lost to Japan, a team they had previously beaten twice.

The WBC is a great idea in principle, but changes have to be made in order to not only keep it going but to help it grow as well.

Absolutely. It feels like Korea has been on the TV the whole time. It's ridiculous and makes for a boring tournament. Start by fixing the format. How difficult is it to create a round-robin tournament?