Nova English teacher = you’re screwed and that sucks. Over 4,000 teachers are out of a job! Over 400,000 students haven’t gotten a refund! Nova is bankrupt! This is all total shiznit! It looks like things have come to an end for Nova English teachers that are here on a work visa in hopes of some income and a cultural experience. You’re probably left with very few options such as… finding another job teaching english, or working at some short term job, or working at a bar/club frequented by English speaking Gaijin. (Here’s another job search related link) If you can’t find a job then you can always head back to your home country. For some of you it may not be possible due financial difficulty (aka not being paid by the man) which basically means you’re screwed. If I were in a situation of not being able to find a job replacement I’d either save the money I had to buy a ticket with (while spending the rest partying it up) or in the case I had $0 I’d have my friends/family wire me some money or buy an e-ticket for me to get the hell out of dodge! If you plan on getting a plane ticket you should act soon because after December 20th the rates go up due to the holiday season. If you wait longer than that you’ll just be super screwed. By the way I can’t imagine having a family and working for Nova and not getting paid. Nova carries a debt worth 40 billion Yen. They might have to refund students before paying out salaries and who knows when that could happen. It could be six months or longer.

I read in many places about emergency loans this, emergency loans that, hoping to get an emergency loan from the Embassy blah blah blah. Good luck with that! I can’t find any information on the web regarding this type of loan. The U.S. Embassy website (tokyo.usembassy.gov) mentions nothing about a loan or emergency funds for people employed by Nova. They do say this:

If you require financial assistance, you could request that your family wire funds through the U.S. Department of State here or purchase an e-ticket on your behalf.

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NOVA Corp is the Japan’s largest English conversation school chain. And for those who teach English in Japan and are employed by Nova I say… DOH! I read the news back in April of 2007 when Nova got busted for breaking the law (they refused to refund tuition fees to students who canceled their contracts.) And recently people have not been getting paid for their work. Today things have gotten worse and Nova has filed for protection from the courts.

I wonder what this means for current employees and their work visas. Not only that but if an employees income stops or is slowed it could mean trouble for their living expenses. Damn.

Check out the news from Yahoo

Nova Corp , the largest operator of English language schools in Japan, said on Friday that it has filed for court protection from creditors amid efforts to turn around its business.

Following the company’s announcement, the Jasdaq Securities Exchange said it would delist Nova’s shares on Nov. 27.

Nova, which operates over 900 schools in Japan, posted net losses for the past two business years and said it held a total 43.9 billion yen in debt as of July.

More on this:
Aussie teachers lose jobs in Japanese school shutdown
Google News
Nova applies for court protection from creditors; president missing, 4 execs resign
Scandal-tainted school Nova granted court protection from creditors

Are you ready Starting November 20th 2007 Japan will start to fingerprint and photograph people entering Japan. The fingerprints, photographs and other biometric data of foreign visitors will be stored in a computer for cross-checking with a list of wanted criminals and people who have been deported in the past. Investigative authorities will have access to the data.

The prints will remain on record for 70 years. According to the new procedures, if requested, the Justice Ministry will turn over the data to the police and other government agencies.

This excludes ethnic Koreans and other permanent residents with special status, those under 16, those visiting Japan for diplomatic or official purposes, and those invited by the state.

Japan Times said an estimated 6-7 million foreigners entering Japan every year will be covered by the ordinance.

Wal-Mart is in Japan. I couldn’t believe it and recently I’ve spotted the “GreatValue” brand that’s owned by Wal-Mart in a few grocery stores here. Sure the brand is generic but they sure do rack the price up here in Japan vs. the United States GreatValue price (uber lame!). I just read that Wal-Mart got into the Japan market back in 2002 and owns 50.9% of the struggling Japanese copmany Seiyu. Wal-Mart said it would offer 140 yen per Seiyu common share with the goal of taking full ownership of this drowning company. That would be about $878 Million. Let’s convert to yen as of the current currency conversion rate…

878,000,000 in USD would be 100,495,879,196 Yen. That’s why the Yen is so cool when you’re an American… it sounds like a shit load of money. 10 dollars? Oh hellz no! 1,000 Yen! That’s where it’s at! Read the rest of this entry »