Latest 15 of 20 Total Comments Show All

• 

  TPOJ at 10:48 AM JST - 23rd June

  Wow. So he took the money for the employees and gave it to (some) of the customers.

  Part of me wants to give him credit for trying, poorly as he did, to make things right. Most of me, however, thinks he prioritized: give the money to the people most likely to fight back. I suppose me might have also been trying to reduce the inevitable criminal charges: not paying your employees is one thing, but not paying the public after you've been smacked by the government for failing to do just that is another.

  I don't think it's the greed. I think it's the power of being able to screw other people over that tends to corrupt us.

  I'll go one further and simply say both of those are encapsulated in ego. The problem with an inherently polite and cooperative society is that the inevitable scumbags have nothing to keep them in check. The government eventually got involved, but only after the company got sued TWICE. Even after the company was shut down, there's been serious doubt that anything was going to happen...hence the surprise in thepro's post.

  Even now, with the new company running Nova, there seems to be some truly amazing feats of arrogance on display (a friend of mine told me about a memo that went out, essentially blaming poor business on the fact that the foreign staff had so many absences in October. It failed to acknowledge that October was when no one was getting paid.)

  Every culture has room for improvement. America needs to back off on its arrogance. China needs to start treating people like people. And Japan needs to start figuring out what "responsibility" means (hint: "what you can get away with" is not part of the equation.)

• 

  williamsmith at 10:58 AM JST - 23rd June

  I imagine they can't hold him personally financially responsible, so he will remain rich having only lost his position. What I really hope is that they take down those blasted Nova signs.

• 

  Zen_Builder at 11:00 AM JST - 23rd June

  In my area no nova signs to be seen for months. All the schools are gone and new businesses have moved in.

• 

  faulkmore at 11:00 AM JST - 23rd June

  These comments are actually quite polite considering the number of foreigners that lost their livelihoods and had to leave Japan over this. Japan of course is better off without Nova. Foreigner community is also better off without Nova. But we lost a lot of good friends due to the suddeness of the collapse of Nova. The Anglish market couldn't absorb so many workers, so quickly.

  What is most shocking is that cops actually do work besides giving directions and feeding stray cats and harrassing bicycle riders and collecting their pay checks.

  And where do they go to practice their scary Osaka ben. Seems all the cops use it.

  Dave Faulkmore usguyintokyo.com

• 

  Notginger at 11:05 AM JST - 23rd June

  I worked for Nova a few years ago for a few years and I never heard of any teacher receiving any congratulatory or condolence money, even though a few of my colleagues got married, had children or were bereaved. I didn't even know they were skimming our salaries for it - it wasn't shown on my paychecque.

• 

  jerseyboy at 11:48 AM JST - 23rd June

  8iamhappy8...Agree. As the saying goes "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". And, here in Japan, where the head of a company, particularly a private one like this, has the complete obedience/loyalty of his subordinates -- these kinds of misdeeds occur on a regular basis. Just look at all the mis-labeling, delayed recalls/hidden defects, fraud, etc, that has occurred here of late.

• 

  Bovinus at 12:43 PM JST - 23rd June

  I assume by 'employees' it means the Japanese staff. I never heard of teachers getting 2000 yen deducted or receiving anything either.

  I'm very happy that he is facing criminal charges and hope he gets a good lengthly spell in prison.

• 

  uktokyoite at 02:09 PM JST - 23rd June

  I'm glad he is being prosecuted - but I would also like to know - does this mean they've found him? It's very difficult to see what difference this decision will make if nobody knows where he is. The longer he is absent the less likely he will ever face justice in my opinion.

• 

  tokyotom at 02:10 PM JST - 23rd June

  it was always a house of cards, those students payments for future lessons were paying the bills of today, once the new students money stopped coming (due to not being allowed to advertise), then today's bills could not be paid

• 

  spudman at 03:52 PM JST - 23rd June

  lesson 27 7B. saruhashi can talk to Fred about his mother in law.

• 

  Youdontknow at 04:19 PM JST - 23rd June

  I hope they throw his a$$ in jail for a very long time! He should NOT be allowed to get away with this!

  GCommunications called me last week and offered me a job, and they told me on the phone, "The only thing that has changed is the company name. We still use the old Nova method, new materials and the same classroom system." They also proceeded to tell me that the 4 million yen per year salary would require working a LOT of overtime - not as advertised. So it would seem nothing has changed - same tactics, same ignorance, same greed.

  Sahashi took his position too far - GComm would do well to learn from this idiot's ignorance of the law!

• 

  Youdontknow at 04:19 PM JST - 23rd June

  Oh, and I decided NOT to take the GComm job!

• 

  LFRAgain at 04:24 PM JST - 23rd June

  uktokyoite,

  He came out of hiding a month or so after the collapse of the company. Reportedly, he was with family and friends trying to reorganize (translate: Making sure everyone had their sotries straight for the forthcoming investigation). Although it was suspected that he skipped the country right before the meltdown, he came out of hiding and has been around for some time now. If you'll recall, he even had the audacity to send a letter to the editor of a major Japanese newspaper, attempting to explain how he wasn't a bad guy in all this and that the custom tea room he had installed in one of his many offices across Japan (next door to the tackily decorated bedroom) was for sample lessons for prospective clients, although it had up until the collapse never actually been used in that capacity even once, according to his staff. I hope they nail him to the wall.

• 

  knucklerap at 11:07 PM JST - 23rd June

  Where are the checks and balances in the corporate world? They should be strip searching these guys every time they leave the office.

• 

  usaexpat at 11:44 PM JST - 23rd June

  Sahashi may yet get what's coming to him.

Register or login to add a comment!