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

Engrish creeps up on you in the strangest places. A shot from the men's room:

While the Japanese is asking you to take an extra step forward so you don't dribble all over the floor, the Engrish remains a mystery.

When we last saw Berlitz, it was suing five of its instructors and two officials of the National Union of General Workers (NUGW) Tokyo Nambu for ¥110 million in damages each on the grounds that their strike was illegal and that the union was trying to damage the company.

According to the Ministry of Justice, effective April 1, 2010, you will have to show your health insurance card--either kenko kokumin hoken (National Health Insurance) or shakai hoken (Company Health Insurance)--when you apply to renew your visa or change your visa status. If you do not belong to one of these plans, you will be encouraged (forced?) to join or your visa could possibly be revoked.

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.

This:

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 .

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

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.

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?

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.