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

As has been mentioned in comments, the NY ryugaku blog has posted a memo from GEOS New York saying that everything is OK:

Announcement from GEOS New York Corporation (GEOS USA) and GEOS Language Corporation (GEOS Canada)

GEOS Corporation in Japan recently filed for bankruptcy, with some of its assets taken over by G Communications, a separate Japanese company, and some of its assets being currently held by a court-appointed trustee.

J-Cast News takes a look at what brought about GEOS's bankruptcy and what's in store next. Here's a summary.

As is already known, G.communication will take over 70%, or 230 schools, of GEOS and close the remaining 99 schools.

Down but not out, ex-GEOS president Tsuneo Kusunoki has launched an immediate appeal against the bankruptcy procedures.

According to the Sankei shimbun, Kusunoki claims that there was no need to file for bankruptcy and that it amounted to an abuse of authority as the board was not unanimous in its decision.

When G.communication scooped up GEOS I wondered how much blood they could squeeze from the GEOS stone. Apparently, they think quite a bit. It seems G.communication has gone on a media blitz this week with President Hideo Sugimoto giving interviews in the Yomiuri shiumbun, Mainichi shimbun, Sankei shimbun, and The Japan Times. The purpose of this interview was to stress that everything is under control and it's business as usual:

Debito has it:

With the absolutely regrettable news of the bankruptcy of Geos Corp, I must tell you that your salaries for the time period between 2010, March 16th to 2010. April 21st Will NOT be paid to you. There isn’t any cash left. We will work on a way for you all to collect some of your money back through the government. We are still unsure of the procedures to do this.

In response to its customers not getting enough information about their lessons in the aftermath of GEOS' bankruptcy, GEOS has posted a brief FAQ [PDF] dated April 24 in an attempt to explain things. Here's a quick summary.

For a company that sells English lessons under the pretense that it will allow you to communicate with the world, G.communication has been very poor at communicating with its staff and customers. The Asahi shimbun reported yesterday that although g.communications set up a toll-free number for students to call, people are finding that it's almost impossible to get through.

As I wrote previously, Oh to have been a fly on the wall at GEOS. You already know the obituary:

The failure of major language-school operator Geos Corp. occurred because the company didn't trim unprofitable branches fast enough at a time when the industry was facing a drastic drop in students, people in the industry said.

Adamu at MutantFrog has taken the time to graph the numbers for the foreigner language market in Japan. If you've been following developments, you know that the numbers are bad. That said, he has an optimistic take on what's in store in for eikaiwa.

When Nova went bankrupt in 2007, two central themes of the collapse were the large pre-payment of lesson fees and the inability of Nova to provide refunds. The fallout was so large, the media dubbed Nova's collapse as the largest consumer wipe-out since the end of the Pacific War.