This blog post discusses the rise and fall of NOVA corporation, and also discusses some of my own experiences working there. If NOVA crashed and burned why am I writing this? Because it has been resurrected by a different owner, and really nothing has changed. Also NOVA epitomizes the whole English conversation industry in Japan. If you are tempted to head to Japan seeking fame and fortune, don’t say you weren’t warned !
The Origins of NOVA
NOVA was an English language school founded in 1981 by Nozomi Saruhashi in conjunction with Anders Lunqvist (“the backpacking swede”), and another foreigner both of whom he met while studying overseas. Saruhashi studied overseas for some time, but never apparently graduated, and was jobless on his return to Japan before eventually founding his English language school. NOVA began with one school in Osaka and eventually expanded to around 240 schools in 1997, at this point NOVA went public and was listed on the stock exchange. NOVA corporation continued to expand rapidly, with Saruhashi planning to eventually open 1000 english schools.
NOVA Introduction
For those unfamiliar with NOVA, it is an English conversation school. In Japan office workers, bored housewives, retired people, and various other misfits like to spend their spare time and money on learning to converse in English. For some it is a hobby, whereas others may be learning English in an attempt to enhance their career, or perhaps as preparation for study or travel overseas. Eikaiwa or English conversation is relatively popular and there are a number of large chains of schools, as well as various smaller schools.
NOVA classes basically consisted of 4 students and a teacher crammed into a small room for a 40-45 minute English conversation lesson. Full-time teachers taught a mind-numbing 40 classes per week, although later this was reduced slightly in order that NOVA could avoid making pension and insurance contributions on behalf of teachers. In 2005 NOVA employed around 5,000 foreigners as English teachers. Staff turn-over was extremely high and Nova recruited 2,500 to 3,000 teachers each year to replace those who had left. Apparently in some areas staff turn-over exceeded 100% per annum and it was common for employees to leave within 3 months or even within a few days of starting at NOVA.
NOVA typically hired graduates from any English speaking country and sponsored them for a Specialist in Humanities Visa. They also hired people without a degree but who were eligible for a working holiday visa. NOVA attracted a degree of notoriety due to the generally poor working conditions and various other questionable practices. Young and sometimes idealistic foreign instructors were often shocked at the quasi-sweat shop conditions, and fascist management practices they encountered
NOVA from an Instructor’s Perspective
From the perspective of a lowly instructor, Nova was well known for a number of dubious practices. Probably the most well known was the non-fraternization clause. This prohibited foreign teachers from having any kind of contact with nova students outside of the classroom. As was explained to me during orientation and also during “instructor training”, this policy required you to avoid even a casual conversation with a student you might encounter while walking down the street. According to NOVA corporation the purpose of the clause was to "protect both the teachers and the students from trouble, as they do not know each other's cultures and customs". A number of teachers were fired or demoted for violating this clause. A legal opinion from the Osaka Bar Association was that this practice was illegal as it violated instructor’s human rights and also discriminatory as it only applied to foreign staff and not Japanese staff.
Another well known policy that applied only to foreign staff and not Japanese was the drug testing policy. In 1994 two teachers were arrested on drugs charges. This resulted in NOVA asking teachers to sign a policy agreeing to a drug test, the results of which would be reported to the police. As far as I know no actual tests were performed, likely due to the fact that the Osaka Bar association gave an opinion that the tests were illegal, and more importantly NOVA baulked at the cost of testing that many instructors.
Before teachers arrived in Japan Nova required them to have proof of insurance, this was a convenient way of forcing them to sign up for the NOVA brand of medical insurance. They also refused to enroll employees in the government insurance/pension scheme Shakai Hoken, as this would require NOVA to make contributions. When it became clear that full-time staff were eligible, NOVA reorganized the lesson durations and instructor contracts to enable them to claim that the staff weren’t actually full-time workers and continue to avoid any obligation to contribute any insurance or pension payments. The reinsurer NOVA used for their own brand of medical insurance eventually ceased their involvement with NOVA due to the illegalities of the NOVA scheme.
Later NOVA used a different reinsurer (interglobal). Interglobal still offer insurance in Japan, Korea and elsewhere, both under their own brand and as a reinsurer. However I strongly recommend you avoid them. I had an insurance policy with them, but when I got badly sick they refused to honour my claim. Also I found them to be administratively extremely disorganized. I would’ve liked to sue them as I believe they were acting illegally, but when you are in Japan and they are based in New Zealand, any court action would be complicated and costly. If you are in Japan for a couple of years and do need insurance in Japan I recommend enrolling in Kokumin Hoken (a form of public medical insurance), as you won’t have any issues with them not paying. After interglobal refused to honour my claim, in order to receive ongoing affordable treatment, I was fortunately able to join Kokumin Hoken by back paying the premiums. A couple of things are worth mentioning about Kokumin Hoken. Firstly premiums are based on your previous year’s income, so the first year in Japan they will be very cheap. Secondly people advise against enrolling in Kokumin Hoken because you can’t get out of the scheme. This is incorrect, if you really don’t want to be in the scheme, you can cease to pay the premiums. Sure you will get a lot of reminders, but the only penalty is that you no longer have coverage under the scheme. Thirdly, the major advantage with any japanese government insurance scheme, is that when you receive treatment, you only have to pay a percentage of the cost after receiving treatment. With any other insurer you will have to pay the full cost, and then try and later claim reimbursement. Too bad if you are short of cash (you may be declined treatment), or if your dodgy overseas insurer refuses to pay.
In addition to directing teachers into their overpriced and illegal medical insurance scheme, another dubious practice was NOVA accommodation. NOVA used to rent apartments which they sublet at a mark-up in the range of 50-100%. They were able to do this as most teachers were new to Japan and unfamiliar with the rental market. Also it is notoriously difficult for foreigners to rent in Japan as many landlords don’t want to deal with non-Japanese. As an example, I shared an apartment with 2 other nova teachers. Other apartments in that building were rent for 85,000 yen per month, however NOVA charged each of us 60,000 yen per month.
NOVA from a Students Perspective
NOVAs rapid growth seemed to be due to a number of factors such as saturation advertising, the convenient location of its branches near train stations, and also the promise that lessons could be taken at anytime. Also NOVA used a popular pink rabbit like mascot called the NOVA Usagi. It was literally everywhere, with NOVA usagi branded products that seemingly had no connection to the Eikaiwa business, such as snack foods being widely available.
When I told some Japanese people I used to work at NOVA they often commented that they loved the NOVA Usagi, and pulled out little gizmos such as NOVA pens, key rings etc. Next when I told them NOVA was a bad company (this was long before it was apparent NOVA would collapse, or the adverse METI report), they had an expression on their face like a five year old that had just been told that Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny weren’t real. This was then often followed by an expression of disbelief that NOVA was actually a bad organization. In fact no matter how much I tried to persuade people that NOVA was a bad place to study, I often found people were just unwilling to believe me.
In a sense I guess NOVA sold Japanese people a dream, that by learning English they could somehow escape their often mundane and dreary lives. English would help them make friends, get a promotion, and open up the possibility of working overseas. Perhaps this is not so different from the dreams of fresh off the boat young graduates who come to Japan to teach english, they are also looking for new opportunities, new friendships, and perhaps the chance to get rich. Unfortunately people on both sides of the classroom table were heading for disappointment.
The most egregious problem with NOVA from a student’s perspective was the points system and the high pressure and illegal sales tactics adopted by NOVA sales staff. NOVA sales staff were very aggressive and persistent, this lead Japanese students to buy a large number of points. Each point could be exchanged for a 40 minute lesson. Some students I taught bought 600 points, often taking out loans to do so. (As you might expect these loans were conveniently provided by the NOVA finance branch).
Under Japanese law students who sign contracts with private language schools are entitled to an 8 day cooling off period. One illegal tactic adopted by NOVA was the refusal to pay refunds by claiming that the cooling off period started from the date the student first enquired rather than the date they signed the contract.
Another problem was that NOVA often pushed people into buying ludicrously overpriced CDs, Books, etc. As an example when I taught at NOVA the standard textbook was called “Quest”, this textbook was originally intended for use in teaching English to Spanish speakers back in the 1970s. The textbook itself wasn’t that horrendous, especially compared to the NOVA produced book that replaced it, but the textbooks were sold to student at several times the price an updated non-nova branded version of the book could be bought for.
One area that really got NOVA into trouble was that students were often unable to book lessons despite NOVA promising that lessons could be booked at any time. The points also had expiry dates attached, so that they disappeared if not used by a certain date. So despite students having paid large amounts in advance, they were unable to even schedule one of NOVA’s lackluster classes.
Later when students got disillusioned with NOVA and tried to claim a refund NOVA had a range of tactics to avoid giving a refund at all. If they were really pushed into a corner they had a range of illegal practices where they would revalue the lessons already taken, so they the amount of money to be refunded would be comparatively small. The following example was given in a Japanese newspaper: A contract for 100 lessons, would cost 230,000 yen, for a per-lesson fee of 2,300 yen. A contract for 600 lessons would cost 720,000 yen, or 1,200 yen per class. But if a person with a contract for 600 lessons canceled after taking only 100 classes, Nova would apply the fee of 2,300 yen per lesson to the classes already taken. Now some people sympathetic to NOVA business practices may argue that this is “fair”, but that is really beside the point, as this practice is illegal under Japanese consumer law.
Various other common complaints from students concerned the poor quality of materials, the poor training of NOVA teachers and so forth. Apparently some students were told whatever was necessary in order to make the sale, even if that promise directly contravened NOVA policy. Typical examples were that, “all teachers can speak Japanese, so they can explain things in Japanese if necessary”, “there are plenty of opportunities to socialize with teachers outside of class”. Of course most teachers couldn’t speak Japanese, and even if they could you would probably be fired for speaking Japanese as it was against NOVA policy.
The report by the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry into NOVA’s activities makes interesting reading (unfortunately it is in Japanese). For your enjoyment a few cases from the report will be translated below.
The Origins of NOVA
NOVA was an English language school founded in 1981 by Nozomi Saruhashi in conjunction with Anders Lunqvist (“the backpacking swede”), and another foreigner both of whom he met while studying overseas. Saruhashi studied overseas for some time, but never apparently graduated, and was jobless on his return to Japan before eventually founding his English language school. NOVA began with one school in Osaka and eventually expanded to around 240 schools in 1997, at this point NOVA went public and was listed on the stock exchange. NOVA corporation continued to expand rapidly, with Saruhashi planning to eventually open 1000 english schools.
NOVA Introduction
For those unfamiliar with NOVA, it is an English conversation school. In Japan office workers, bored housewives, retired people, and various other misfits like to spend their spare time and money on learning to converse in English. For some it is a hobby, whereas others may be learning English in an attempt to enhance their career, or perhaps as preparation for study or travel overseas. Eikaiwa or English conversation is relatively popular and there are a number of large chains of schools, as well as various smaller schools.
NOVA classes basically consisted of 4 students and a teacher crammed into a small room for a 40-45 minute English conversation lesson. Full-time teachers taught a mind-numbing 40 classes per week, although later this was reduced slightly in order that NOVA could avoid making pension and insurance contributions on behalf of teachers. In 2005 NOVA employed around 5,000 foreigners as English teachers. Staff turn-over was extremely high and Nova recruited 2,500 to 3,000 teachers each year to replace those who had left. Apparently in some areas staff turn-over exceeded 100% per annum and it was common for employees to leave within 3 months or even within a few days of starting at NOVA.
NOVA typically hired graduates from any English speaking country and sponsored them for a Specialist in Humanities Visa. They also hired people without a degree but who were eligible for a working holiday visa. NOVA attracted a degree of notoriety due to the generally poor working conditions and various other questionable practices. Young and sometimes idealistic foreign instructors were often shocked at the quasi-sweat shop conditions, and fascist management practices they encountered
NOVA from an Instructor’s Perspective
From the perspective of a lowly instructor, Nova was well known for a number of dubious practices. Probably the most well known was the non-fraternization clause. This prohibited foreign teachers from having any kind of contact with nova students outside of the classroom. As was explained to me during orientation and also during “instructor training”, this policy required you to avoid even a casual conversation with a student you might encounter while walking down the street. According to NOVA corporation the purpose of the clause was to "protect both the teachers and the students from trouble, as they do not know each other's cultures and customs". A number of teachers were fired or demoted for violating this clause. A legal opinion from the Osaka Bar Association was that this practice was illegal as it violated instructor’s human rights and also discriminatory as it only applied to foreign staff and not Japanese staff.
Another well known policy that applied only to foreign staff and not Japanese was the drug testing policy. In 1994 two teachers were arrested on drugs charges. This resulted in NOVA asking teachers to sign a policy agreeing to a drug test, the results of which would be reported to the police. As far as I know no actual tests were performed, likely due to the fact that the Osaka Bar association gave an opinion that the tests were illegal, and more importantly NOVA baulked at the cost of testing that many instructors.
Before teachers arrived in Japan Nova required them to have proof of insurance, this was a convenient way of forcing them to sign up for the NOVA brand of medical insurance. They also refused to enroll employees in the government insurance/pension scheme Shakai Hoken, as this would require NOVA to make contributions. When it became clear that full-time staff were eligible, NOVA reorganized the lesson durations and instructor contracts to enable them to claim that the staff weren’t actually full-time workers and continue to avoid any obligation to contribute any insurance or pension payments. The reinsurer NOVA used for their own brand of medical insurance eventually ceased their involvement with NOVA due to the illegalities of the NOVA scheme.
Later NOVA used a different reinsurer (interglobal). Interglobal still offer insurance in Japan, Korea and elsewhere, both under their own brand and as a reinsurer. However I strongly recommend you avoid them. I had an insurance policy with them, but when I got badly sick they refused to honour my claim. Also I found them to be administratively extremely disorganized. I would’ve liked to sue them as I believe they were acting illegally, but when you are in Japan and they are based in New Zealand, any court action would be complicated and costly. If you are in Japan for a couple of years and do need insurance in Japan I recommend enrolling in Kokumin Hoken (a form of public medical insurance), as you won’t have any issues with them not paying. After interglobal refused to honour my claim, in order to receive ongoing affordable treatment, I was fortunately able to join Kokumin Hoken by back paying the premiums. A couple of things are worth mentioning about Kokumin Hoken. Firstly premiums are based on your previous year’s income, so the first year in Japan they will be very cheap. Secondly people advise against enrolling in Kokumin Hoken because you can’t get out of the scheme. This is incorrect, if you really don’t want to be in the scheme, you can cease to pay the premiums. Sure you will get a lot of reminders, but the only penalty is that you no longer have coverage under the scheme. Thirdly, the major advantage with any japanese government insurance scheme, is that when you receive treatment, you only have to pay a percentage of the cost after receiving treatment. With any other insurer you will have to pay the full cost, and then try and later claim reimbursement. Too bad if you are short of cash (you may be declined treatment), or if your dodgy overseas insurer refuses to pay.
In addition to directing teachers into their overpriced and illegal medical insurance scheme, another dubious practice was NOVA accommodation. NOVA used to rent apartments which they sublet at a mark-up in the range of 50-100%. They were able to do this as most teachers were new to Japan and unfamiliar with the rental market. Also it is notoriously difficult for foreigners to rent in Japan as many landlords don’t want to deal with non-Japanese. As an example, I shared an apartment with 2 other nova teachers. Other apartments in that building were rent for 85,000 yen per month, however NOVA charged each of us 60,000 yen per month.
NOVA from a Students Perspective
NOVAs rapid growth seemed to be due to a number of factors such as saturation advertising, the convenient location of its branches near train stations, and also the promise that lessons could be taken at anytime. Also NOVA used a popular pink rabbit like mascot called the NOVA Usagi. It was literally everywhere, with NOVA usagi branded products that seemingly had no connection to the Eikaiwa business, such as snack foods being widely available.
When I told some Japanese people I used to work at NOVA they often commented that they loved the NOVA Usagi, and pulled out little gizmos such as NOVA pens, key rings etc. Next when I told them NOVA was a bad company (this was long before it was apparent NOVA would collapse, or the adverse METI report), they had an expression on their face like a five year old that had just been told that Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny weren’t real. This was then often followed by an expression of disbelief that NOVA was actually a bad organization. In fact no matter how much I tried to persuade people that NOVA was a bad place to study, I often found people were just unwilling to believe me.
In a sense I guess NOVA sold Japanese people a dream, that by learning English they could somehow escape their often mundane and dreary lives. English would help them make friends, get a promotion, and open up the possibility of working overseas. Perhaps this is not so different from the dreams of fresh off the boat young graduates who come to Japan to teach english, they are also looking for new opportunities, new friendships, and perhaps the chance to get rich. Unfortunately people on both sides of the classroom table were heading for disappointment.
The most egregious problem with NOVA from a student’s perspective was the points system and the high pressure and illegal sales tactics adopted by NOVA sales staff. NOVA sales staff were very aggressive and persistent, this lead Japanese students to buy a large number of points. Each point could be exchanged for a 40 minute lesson. Some students I taught bought 600 points, often taking out loans to do so. (As you might expect these loans were conveniently provided by the NOVA finance branch).
Under Japanese law students who sign contracts with private language schools are entitled to an 8 day cooling off period. One illegal tactic adopted by NOVA was the refusal to pay refunds by claiming that the cooling off period started from the date the student first enquired rather than the date they signed the contract.
Another problem was that NOVA often pushed people into buying ludicrously overpriced CDs, Books, etc. As an example when I taught at NOVA the standard textbook was called “Quest”, this textbook was originally intended for use in teaching English to Spanish speakers back in the 1970s. The textbook itself wasn’t that horrendous, especially compared to the NOVA produced book that replaced it, but the textbooks were sold to student at several times the price an updated non-nova branded version of the book could be bought for.
One area that really got NOVA into trouble was that students were often unable to book lessons despite NOVA promising that lessons could be booked at any time. The points also had expiry dates attached, so that they disappeared if not used by a certain date. So despite students having paid large amounts in advance, they were unable to even schedule one of NOVA’s lackluster classes.
Later when students got disillusioned with NOVA and tried to claim a refund NOVA had a range of tactics to avoid giving a refund at all. If they were really pushed into a corner they had a range of illegal practices where they would revalue the lessons already taken, so they the amount of money to be refunded would be comparatively small. The following example was given in a Japanese newspaper: A contract for 100 lessons, would cost 230,000 yen, for a per-lesson fee of 2,300 yen. A contract for 600 lessons would cost 720,000 yen, or 1,200 yen per class. But if a person with a contract for 600 lessons canceled after taking only 100 classes, Nova would apply the fee of 2,300 yen per lesson to the classes already taken. Now some people sympathetic to NOVA business practices may argue that this is “fair”, but that is really beside the point, as this practice is illegal under Japanese consumer law.
Various other common complaints from students concerned the poor quality of materials, the poor training of NOVA teachers and so forth. Apparently some students were told whatever was necessary in order to make the sale, even if that promise directly contravened NOVA policy. Typical examples were that, “all teachers can speak Japanese, so they can explain things in Japanese if necessary”, “there are plenty of opportunities to socialize with teachers outside of class”. Of course most teachers couldn’t speak Japanese, and even if they could you would probably be fired for speaking Japanese as it was against NOVA policy.
The report by the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry into NOVA’s activities makes interesting reading (unfortunately it is in Japanese). For your enjoyment a few cases from the report will be translated below.
[Cases to be added soon]
The fall of NOVA and Saruhashi’s enrichment
Between 1996 and 2007 The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan received some 7,600 complaints or inquiries about Nova's contract and cancellation policies. Other consumer organizations also fielded large numbers of complaints. For sometime little action was taken against NOVA. The delay was at least in part due to the fact that the NOVA president Saruhashi had links to various politicians, most notably LDP Lower House member Yasuhide Nakayama. Nakayama accompanied Saruhashi to meetings that occurred during the court dispute over refunds, he also met with various others such as the Industry Minister on Saruhashi’s behalf. Saruhashi gained favor with various politicians via the usual mechanism of campaign contributions and so forth.
Eventually however the number and magnitude of NOVA’s crimes were so great that even the political connections of its president were unable to prevent the lethargic Japanese beauracracy from investigating and eventually punishing NOVA. The punishment was a ban on accepting or finalizing new contracts for courses over a year in duration (or more than 70 hours), effective June 2007. According to the METI report on NOVA, the punishment was for engaging “in illegal acts, with the top management at its head office authorizing the irregularities. The company even compiled a manual advising staff on how to respond to claims by students”. More specifically the company misled people about cooling off periods, short-changed them on refunds, and provided fraudulent information to induce consumers to sign up for lessons.
A more detailed translations from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) report detailing what exact laws NOVA had been breaking can be found on the informative website Lets Japan.
http://www.letsjapan.org/?q=what-nova-got-nailed-for.html
http://www.letsjapan.org/?q=what-nova-got-nailed-for-part-2.html
http://www.letsjapan.org/?q=what-nova-got-nailed-for-part-3.html
This was the beginning of the end for NOVA, as the giant Ponzi scheme which kept the company alive began to unravel. As it turns out when students paid for 600 lessons in advance, that money wasn’t actually put aside so NOVA had enough money to pay for instructors and rent in the future. Rather that money was basically used up almost immediately to pay for the current expenses such as advertising, extensive branch network, Saruhashi’s salary and so on.
As a consequence of the negative publicity, resultant surge in refund requests, and of course its present inability to sign long term contracts, NOVA quickly encountered cash flow problems. By August 2007 NOVA was missing payments to its business partners, and desperately trying to raise funds through share offerings, and various opaque financial dealing. When September 2007 arrived it was nearly all over, payment of wages and bonuses to Japanese staff were delayed, at first this was blamed on problems with the payroll system, but only the most diehard NOVA supporters believed that. In October payment of wages to foreign teachers didn’t take place as scheduled and Japanese staff still hadn’t received payment from the previous month. By now it was obvious, that the rent that had been deducted from teachers salaries in earlier months had also disappeared and was not passed on to landlords, leading instructors to be shut out of their apartments. Around this time Saruhashi sent out the infamous “god fax”, where he claimed god would rescue NOVA and not allow it to collapse. Unfortunately god didn’t hear Saruhashi’s pleas, and within a few weeks the more than 900 NOVA branches throughout Japan were closed. NOVA was officially bankrupt
When the dust settled it was clear that students, and teachers were out of pocket a substantial amount of money. Some teachers had no money to return home, and no where to live as their rent hadn’t been paid for several months. While not starving many students were also out of pocket thousands of dollars based on advanced fees they had paid.
As the receivers moved in, it was apparent that Saruhashi had a lot in common with the executives of other high profile corporate failures, namely he had used his position at NOVA primarily for personal enrichment. In addition to his 300 million yen a year annual compensation, the entire 20th floor of NOVA’s Osaka headquarters was used by him as an executive office. The office was complete with a bathroom with sauna, a Japanese-style tea room and a hidden bedroom with a double bed. Needless to say the whole floor was decorated with the most expensive, and ostentatious furnishings imaginable.
While still rushing around claiming that NOVA would be saved, Saruhashi was busy illegally dumped most of his shareholdings, no need for him to go down with the sinking ship. Furthermore he engaged in various other shady financial transactions around this time, some of which were rumoured to involve Japanese organized crime figures.
Who is to blame?
Obviously the number one culprit is Saruhashi himself. He was ultimately responsible for the financial mismanagement, the shoddy lessons, and the poor treatment of teachers and students. Also he originated or approved the numerous violations of consumer and labor laws that NOVA committed during its existence. Moreover he was responsible for the aggressive advertising, over expansion, and ponzi-like business model that ultimately led to NOVA’s collapse. It is apparent to all who had dealings with Saruhashi that he was extremely egotistical and interested primarily in his own self-enrichment. He was notorious for treating many staff with contempt, usually turning up 4-8 hours late for scheduled meetings. Saruhashi was also infamous for the defrauding NOVA shareholders by siphoning money from NOVA to other companies he had owned. In some ways Saruhashi has a lot in common with the infamous CEOs of companies like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and I guess more recently Bernard Madoff.
One of NOVA’s products was the ability to take lessons from their own home. To do this they needed to purchase a “ginganet” videophone from NOVA. However NOVA bought these phones from the Ginganet Corp which was entirely owned by Saruhashi. The price NOVA paid for these phones was several times greater than what Ginganet themselves purchased them from NEC for. This was one of several means Saruhashi used to defraud NOVA shareholders.
The second culprit is no doubt Anders Lundqvist, he cofounded NOVA and is certainly as guilty as Saruhashi and jointly responsible for the years of mismanagement and financial malfeasance at NOVA.
The third group of culprits is the staff at NOVA who carried out NOVA’s illegal policies. The sad thing is some of those people seemed to enjoy working at NOVA and didn’t believe that ripping off customers and violating people’s human rights was wrong. In many ways most of NOVA management was dysfunctional. The foreigners who become branch managers, trainers, or regional managers for NOVA not only needed to buy into the various illegal practices of NOVA, but they also needed to have the pre-requisite levels of obsequiousness towards their superiors and contempt for those below them. It would be fair to say that even the most gifted foreign managers were below average in ability, but saw in NOVA a chance to get ahead. Given the kind of organization NOVA was, few people with morals, or real ability stuck around for long.
Among the foreign managers a few people were particularly notorious. Firstly we have Edward Fackler (Edo Fackler), now although he left NOVA sometime before the implosion for a long time he was responsible for enforcing many of NOVA’s illegal policies such as the non-fraternization rule. Edo typified the NOVA manager. He had no career before joining NOVA, and after spending 15 years working at NOVA, on returning to the US he has been unable to establish a meaningful career. Furthermore while he didn’t contribute anything to improving NOVA’s performance, he did enjoy exercising his power over instructors by randomly denying requests for leave, and transfer requests, as well as often criticizing the appearance of instructors. Word has it that he his attempting to pursue a career as a personal trainer, but is unable to secure any customers. [Oddly he also goes by the alias of Eddie Fox, perhaps in an attempt to avoid disgruntled former NOVA employees]
Other notorious foreign managers, which also appeared to enjoy the NOVA culture and all the ethics violations involved, were Karen Miller, and Flemming Lord. I have no idea what happened to either of these, however after leaving NOVA Karen Miller was rumoured to be working part-time at a beauty salon, while trying to bluff her way back into a management position. Fortunately word of her abilities, or rather lack of them, has managed to filter through to potential employers. Flemming Lord apparently managed to survive for sometime and was last seen greeting new NOVA employees at the bus terminal. If you want more stories about notorious NOVA management you can find a variety of amusing anecdotes here
http://www.letsjapan.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=254925
One of the fundamental problems at NOVA was that the people who were in some ways dysfunctional and who had little or no management skills were promoted into positions of authority. Once promoted they often become egotistical maniacs and abused their authority just for the hell of it, often lashing out at instructors. In other countries the way NOVA treated its employees would no doubt result in numerous lawsuits, fortunately for NOVA most instructors lacked the knowledge, financial means, and confidence to undertake legal action in Japan. This ultimately limited the number of cases NOVA was forced to fight and invariably lose.
While not wanting to be accused of exaggeration, it is not stretching the truth to say that NOVA was something of a quasi-fascist organization, the way you got promoted often involved currying favor with managers by reporting various trivial transgressions of other teachers, as well as generally being a sycophant. Another aspect to this quasi-fascism was the keeping of files of dirt on instructors that could be used against them in the event of an employment dispute or similar. One should also mention the infamous log book, this is where comments made by students about instructors, or other minor complaints or issues would get recorded. I wish I could’ve seen the logbook at my branch. But I did manage to secure some examples of the kind of petty stuff that was written in the daily log book by NOVA managers. Instructors were never shown what was actually written in the logbook, but it was a source of material for the daily haranguing from the Assistant Trainer (essentially a branch manager of the foreign teachers).
The fall of NOVA and Saruhashi’s enrichment
Between 1996 and 2007 The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan received some 7,600 complaints or inquiries about Nova's contract and cancellation policies. Other consumer organizations also fielded large numbers of complaints. For sometime little action was taken against NOVA. The delay was at least in part due to the fact that the NOVA president Saruhashi had links to various politicians, most notably LDP Lower House member Yasuhide Nakayama. Nakayama accompanied Saruhashi to meetings that occurred during the court dispute over refunds, he also met with various others such as the Industry Minister on Saruhashi’s behalf. Saruhashi gained favor with various politicians via the usual mechanism of campaign contributions and so forth.
Eventually however the number and magnitude of NOVA’s crimes were so great that even the political connections of its president were unable to prevent the lethargic Japanese beauracracy from investigating and eventually punishing NOVA. The punishment was a ban on accepting or finalizing new contracts for courses over a year in duration (or more than 70 hours), effective June 2007. According to the METI report on NOVA, the punishment was for engaging “in illegal acts, with the top management at its head office authorizing the irregularities. The company even compiled a manual advising staff on how to respond to claims by students”. More specifically the company misled people about cooling off periods, short-changed them on refunds, and provided fraudulent information to induce consumers to sign up for lessons.
A more detailed translations from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) report detailing what exact laws NOVA had been breaking can be found on the informative website Lets Japan.
http://www.letsjapan.org/?q=what-nova-got-nailed-for.html
http://www.letsjapan.org/?q=what-nova-got-nailed-for-part-2.html
http://www.letsjapan.org/?q=what-nova-got-nailed-for-part-3.html
This was the beginning of the end for NOVA, as the giant Ponzi scheme which kept the company alive began to unravel. As it turns out when students paid for 600 lessons in advance, that money wasn’t actually put aside so NOVA had enough money to pay for instructors and rent in the future. Rather that money was basically used up almost immediately to pay for the current expenses such as advertising, extensive branch network, Saruhashi’s salary and so on.
As a consequence of the negative publicity, resultant surge in refund requests, and of course its present inability to sign long term contracts, NOVA quickly encountered cash flow problems. By August 2007 NOVA was missing payments to its business partners, and desperately trying to raise funds through share offerings, and various opaque financial dealing. When September 2007 arrived it was nearly all over, payment of wages and bonuses to Japanese staff were delayed, at first this was blamed on problems with the payroll system, but only the most diehard NOVA supporters believed that. In October payment of wages to foreign teachers didn’t take place as scheduled and Japanese staff still hadn’t received payment from the previous month. By now it was obvious, that the rent that had been deducted from teachers salaries in earlier months had also disappeared and was not passed on to landlords, leading instructors to be shut out of their apartments. Around this time Saruhashi sent out the infamous “god fax”, where he claimed god would rescue NOVA and not allow it to collapse. Unfortunately god didn’t hear Saruhashi’s pleas, and within a few weeks the more than 900 NOVA branches throughout Japan were closed. NOVA was officially bankrupt
When the dust settled it was clear that students, and teachers were out of pocket a substantial amount of money. Some teachers had no money to return home, and no where to live as their rent hadn’t been paid for several months. While not starving many students were also out of pocket thousands of dollars based on advanced fees they had paid.
As the receivers moved in, it was apparent that Saruhashi had a lot in common with the executives of other high profile corporate failures, namely he had used his position at NOVA primarily for personal enrichment. In addition to his 300 million yen a year annual compensation, the entire 20th floor of NOVA’s Osaka headquarters was used by him as an executive office. The office was complete with a bathroom with sauna, a Japanese-style tea room and a hidden bedroom with a double bed. Needless to say the whole floor was decorated with the most expensive, and ostentatious furnishings imaginable.
While still rushing around claiming that NOVA would be saved, Saruhashi was busy illegally dumped most of his shareholdings, no need for him to go down with the sinking ship. Furthermore he engaged in various other shady financial transactions around this time, some of which were rumoured to involve Japanese organized crime figures.
Who is to blame?
Obviously the number one culprit is Saruhashi himself. He was ultimately responsible for the financial mismanagement, the shoddy lessons, and the poor treatment of teachers and students. Also he originated or approved the numerous violations of consumer and labor laws that NOVA committed during its existence. Moreover he was responsible for the aggressive advertising, over expansion, and ponzi-like business model that ultimately led to NOVA’s collapse. It is apparent to all who had dealings with Saruhashi that he was extremely egotistical and interested primarily in his own self-enrichment. He was notorious for treating many staff with contempt, usually turning up 4-8 hours late for scheduled meetings. Saruhashi was also infamous for the defrauding NOVA shareholders by siphoning money from NOVA to other companies he had owned. In some ways Saruhashi has a lot in common with the infamous CEOs of companies like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and I guess more recently Bernard Madoff.
One of NOVA’s products was the ability to take lessons from their own home. To do this they needed to purchase a “ginganet” videophone from NOVA. However NOVA bought these phones from the Ginganet Corp which was entirely owned by Saruhashi. The price NOVA paid for these phones was several times greater than what Ginganet themselves purchased them from NEC for. This was one of several means Saruhashi used to defraud NOVA shareholders.
The second culprit is no doubt Anders Lundqvist, he cofounded NOVA and is certainly as guilty as Saruhashi and jointly responsible for the years of mismanagement and financial malfeasance at NOVA.
The third group of culprits is the staff at NOVA who carried out NOVA’s illegal policies. The sad thing is some of those people seemed to enjoy working at NOVA and didn’t believe that ripping off customers and violating people’s human rights was wrong. In many ways most of NOVA management was dysfunctional. The foreigners who become branch managers, trainers, or regional managers for NOVA not only needed to buy into the various illegal practices of NOVA, but they also needed to have the pre-requisite levels of obsequiousness towards their superiors and contempt for those below them. It would be fair to say that even the most gifted foreign managers were below average in ability, but saw in NOVA a chance to get ahead. Given the kind of organization NOVA was, few people with morals, or real ability stuck around for long.
Among the foreign managers a few people were particularly notorious. Firstly we have Edward Fackler (Edo Fackler), now although he left NOVA sometime before the implosion for a long time he was responsible for enforcing many of NOVA’s illegal policies such as the non-fraternization rule. Edo typified the NOVA manager. He had no career before joining NOVA, and after spending 15 years working at NOVA, on returning to the US he has been unable to establish a meaningful career. Furthermore while he didn’t contribute anything to improving NOVA’s performance, he did enjoy exercising his power over instructors by randomly denying requests for leave, and transfer requests, as well as often criticizing the appearance of instructors. Word has it that he his attempting to pursue a career as a personal trainer, but is unable to secure any customers. [Oddly he also goes by the alias of Eddie Fox, perhaps in an attempt to avoid disgruntled former NOVA employees]
Other notorious foreign managers, which also appeared to enjoy the NOVA culture and all the ethics violations involved, were Karen Miller, and Flemming Lord. I have no idea what happened to either of these, however after leaving NOVA Karen Miller was rumoured to be working part-time at a beauty salon, while trying to bluff her way back into a management position. Fortunately word of her abilities, or rather lack of them, has managed to filter through to potential employers. Flemming Lord apparently managed to survive for sometime and was last seen greeting new NOVA employees at the bus terminal. If you want more stories about notorious NOVA management you can find a variety of amusing anecdotes here
http://www.letsjapan.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=254925
One of the fundamental problems at NOVA was that the people who were in some ways dysfunctional and who had little or no management skills were promoted into positions of authority. Once promoted they often become egotistical maniacs and abused their authority just for the hell of it, often lashing out at instructors. In other countries the way NOVA treated its employees would no doubt result in numerous lawsuits, fortunately for NOVA most instructors lacked the knowledge, financial means, and confidence to undertake legal action in Japan. This ultimately limited the number of cases NOVA was forced to fight and invariably lose.
While not wanting to be accused of exaggeration, it is not stretching the truth to say that NOVA was something of a quasi-fascist organization, the way you got promoted often involved currying favor with managers by reporting various trivial transgressions of other teachers, as well as generally being a sycophant. Another aspect to this quasi-fascism was the keeping of files of dirt on instructors that could be used against them in the event of an employment dispute or similar. One should also mention the infamous log book, this is where comments made by students about instructors, or other minor complaints or issues would get recorded. I wish I could’ve seen the logbook at my branch. But I did manage to secure some examples of the kind of petty stuff that was written in the daily log book by NOVA managers. Instructors were never shown what was actually written in the logbook, but it was a source of material for the daily haranguing from the Assistant Trainer (essentially a branch manager of the foreign teachers).
The Japanese beauracracy must also take some of the blame. Unscrupulous language school operators should be held accountable more quickly, and existing laws enforced. Moreover there is definitely a case for tougher regulation in the sector, especially regarding sales tactics, and protection of student funds.
There are also a couple of other organizations and individuals that although not part of the NOVA organization, are also equally guilty. Firstly we have Gaijinpot. Gaijinpot is a popular job site and web forum for foreigners in Japan. Unfortunately the advertisers there are a who’s who of dodgy language schools, illegal insurance sellers, and crooked franchise purveyors (the most notorious being Smith’s School of English). The forum is often cleansed of material that is even slightly critical of advertisers or potential advertisers. In no way should you regard the site as an impartial source of information about Japan. Most notably when NOVA was in the process of collapsing, any material critical of NOVA, or even discussing what was happening, was promptly deleted. Therefore instructors could have potentially been warned before heading to Japan to commence work, found themselves in Japan penniless, without work, and neither accommodation or a ticket home. In general a lot of people who could have been warned about dodgy companies in the Eikaiwa industry are often duped by the operators of Gaijinpot.
NOVA also had links with a number of notorious shills. The most notable of these was Mark Devlin. For a number of years he was the publisher of a free weekly magazine called Metropolis. The exact extent of the financial links between him and NOVA remains unknown, although his magazine was funded entirely via advertisers which included NOVA. Strangely as NOVA was collapsing he abruptly sold his business interests in Japan which included Metropolis and the Japan Today website, and fled the country. This was rather strange as just a couple of years earlier he had bold plans to expand his Crisscross KK publishing organization to 50 million dollars in revenue. Online criticism of Mark Devlin is strangely muted as he has threatened to sue just about anyone who has anything bad to say. He now resides in Sarasota Florida where he was last heard of trying to set up a Karaoke joint. The shilling he undertook for NOVA involved a number of tactics. These included, but were not limited to
- The publishing of articles (ostensably by NOVA instructors) favorable to NOVA in his magazine. One example of this is the following article
which is strongly critical of union representatives and also contains a number of inaccuracies about Shakai Hoken. The alleged author “Angela Smyth” doesn’t seem to exist. When her existence was first questioned, a photo of Angela Smyth was posted with the article. However this photo was later found to be of part of a photo series from this website
the person in the photo had never been to Japan and certainly wasn’t an English teacher.
- The posting of comments favorable to NOVA on various message boards
- The editing of NOVA’s wikipedia entry under the login Sparkzilla to erase material unfavorable to NOVA (He was later banned from Wikipedia for conflict of interest on the NOVA article as well as on various other articles).
One final organization is worth mentioning. That is the Australia Asia Centre for Education Exchange http://www.aace.net.au/. Although most NOVA recruiting was handled by NOVA itself, in Melborune they had an agreement with this organization. Unlike in other areas, where it was free to apply for a job at NOVA, AACE charged applicants an outrageous A$500. Even when it was readily apparent that NOVA would collapse, AACE continued to accept the fee and send young graduates over to Japan. For the $500 fee AACE offered nothing different than if you were recruited directly through NOVA itself. They also papered over the well known flaws of NOVA when asked by potential applicants. The organization is totally unscrupulous and you have nothing to gain by dealing with them in any capacity. I lost count of the number of disgruntled teachers I met who were annoyed with AACE for taking their money and then sending them off to work in under factory conditions, or later arriving to no job at all. Strangely they still boast on their website about their involvement with NOVA !
AACE’s also is involved in Homestay accommodation services, study abroad, and english education programmes. Certainly I would be very careful in dealing with this company, while the quality of these programmes is uncertain, what is certain is that you will be overcharged for whatever service is provided.
My own experience
My own experience with NOVA was several years before its eventual collapse. If I had any doubts about whether the rumours about NOVA were true, those doubts were quickly dispelled. All the stories I had read about NOVA before arriving turned out to be oddly prophetic.
After completing orientation in Osaka, I was sent back to the town I was posted for two days of “training”. The trainer was Derek Bottomley, the guy was the typical for a NOVA trainer, arrogant, rude, and took every available opportunity to treat new employees like dirt. He spent most of the first morning ignoring actual training and boasting that he was from Cambridge, England and studied Maths at Leeds University, or perhaps it was that he studied Maths at Cambridge and was from Leeds (the exact details escape me). Later as the day progressed he started chewing out us new recruits, as if he was a drill instructor in a bad war movie. My first crime was “speaking slowly and unnaturally during the lesson”, keep in mind that this was my first day, and also these were complete beginners who couldn’t speak English. The entire two days of training was along the same lines. I later heard the guy ended up in Mexico, before ending up a mathematics teacher at Sibford School in the UK. What a pompous and condescending ass, bad luck if you end up with him as a teacher.
After a couple of days of “training”, I was sent off to my branch. At first things went OK, although most of my coworkers were pretty sour and unhelpful after having worked at NOVA for anywhere up to a year. The manager of foreign staff at the branch was in his early twenties, had no management experience and his only qualification was a degree in Landscaping?! Not surprisingly he got the job by currying favour with his superiors. As an example, foolishly one night I made a negative comment about NOVA in front of him and some of the other teachers in a pub one night. A few days later when the area manager stopped by for a visit I got a ticking off for those negative comments.
As the weeks went by the petty and annoying complaints mounted up
NOVA muppet: Keiko wasn't happy with your lesson today.
Me: What was the problem ?
NOVA muppet: 4 students were in the classroom.
Me: WTF ?
NOVA muppet: She normally only has 3 in her lesson, and she felt that she didn't get enough attention when there were 4 students.
Me: WTF ?
NOVA muppet: Make sure she gets more attention next time.
NOVA muppet: Someone complained about your lesson.
Me: What was the problem ?
NOVA muppet: You didn't write down the target sentence, so they were confused.
Me: No one asked me to, and it isn't part of the NOVA lesson plan.
NOVA muppet: you should anticipate these things.
(This is a perfect example of a typical NOVA complaint where you are screwed either way. If you start writing down target sentences etc, you will get in trouble for not following the nova lesson plan. But if you don't do something that a student thinks might have been a good idea, you get in trouble too).
NOVA muppet: We got another complaint about your lesson today. The student was confused about the grammar point.
Me: Hmmm, what was the topic of the lesson.
NOVA muppet: We can't tell you that, make sure the grammar point is clear in all your lessons.
A few weeks later (I was still amazingly working at NOVA), I experienced a minor stomach upset. The branch only had one toilet, but was located in a shopping mall with a toilet down the hall. Since the NOVA toilet was often occupied I used the one down the hall a few times. This led me to get told off for leaving the branch between lessons (the time between lessons was unpaid by the way). When I said that I REALLY needed to use the bathroom, I was told to “learn to hold it”!
Other heinous crimes I got raked over the coals for included: "appearing visibly fatigued” (this was at the end of my shift by the way, it wasn't like I turned up hungover). Another memorable crime on my part, was sitting with my legs crossed. I wasn't slouching; I just had my legs crossed under the table. Good luck trying to sit perfectly straight in that chair 8 hours a day. In the interests of brevity I won't bore you with any more anecdotes. Ironically the few times I asked our Assistant Trainer for advice on grammar for example, his answer was “I don’t know about stuff like that”.
Eventually I managed to find a different job, but I still remember the pettiness of working at NOVA. The low pay, no public holidays, no sick days, and 40 classes a week, really started to grind you down. My next job as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) working in the public schools had plenty of challenges, but was a walk in the park compared to NOVA, but that is another story.
Summary
In case you couldn’t be bothered reading my entire discussion about NOVA, the business model, and eventual collapse can be summed up by using a McDonald’s analogy. To be fair though, I have worked at McDonald’s and it is the world’s greatest company compared to NOVA.
- Instead of being able to walk into McDonald’s and buy a Big Mac Combo. Instead you have to buy 600 Big Mac Combos in advance at say 500 yen each.
- You have to eat there at least 3 times per week; otherwise you lose some of the combos you already paid for
- The McDonald's have limited opening hours, and if you try and eat there during breakfast, lunch, or dinner times the queue is around the block, so there is little chance of actually getting served.
- There is high staff turnover and the staff don't know that much about cooking, so normally your burger is either undercooked so you end up with food poisoning, or it is burnt to a crisp.
- The supervisor at McDonald's has no idea about running a restaurant, or how to operate the cash register, or how to cook any of the products. Instead he/she spends their time criticising other employee's attempts at burger making (when their own burger making is as bad), collecting dirt on employees to be stored in secret files, or sucking up to the McDonald's area manager.
- The McDonald's only has two products available, a Big Mac Combo for adults, and a cheeseburger happy meal for kids. The menu never changes yet the McDonald's has a whole division at head office devoted to developing new burgers.
- The staff at McDonald's only get paid for the time they are actually flipping burgers, all other work time is unpaid.
- After a couple of months of this the customer is sick of McDonald's and asks for a refund for some of the Big Mac Combos they haven't yet used up. After a lot of hassle McDonald's offers a refund, but the Big Mac Combos they have already been eaten are revalued at 3000 yen each, so the refund is pretty small.
- The money customers paid for their Big Mac combo vouchers is used up on advertising and opening new branches. Eventually the government bans the selling of 600 Big Mac vouchers in advance. The whole organization collapses. Customers have lost their money, and workers don’t get paid for the last couple of months of burger flipping.
The future of NOVA
After its collapse, NOVA was taken over by GCom, who is slowly reopening some of the branches, although the total number of branches currently open is still relatively small. Although many things have changed at NOVA since its collapse, unfortunately I am told these changes are often for the worse. Although old NOVA is gone, its rise and fall should be a cautionary tale for any who are tempted to seek fame and fortune via teaching english in Japan.
Saruhashi is still walking around, although he is facing a variety of charges such as embezzlement. He is also currently trying to fight a class action lawsuit from a number of students.
There are still many large and small eikaiwa in Japan, some are probably better than NOVA (such as ECC or Aeon), some are definitely worse (such as GABA or GEOS), but don’t be tempted into thinking that Eikaiwa is a good career. If you do decide to go to Japan, be warned !
As proof of the continuation of dodgy sales tactics in the industry, the Eikaiwa “Global Trinity” recently lost a lawsuit to the Kansai Consumer Support Organization (KCSO) and had to agree to alter their NOVAesque sales tactics. See press release here http://www.kc-s.or.jp/report/report1/2008/img/090304b.pdf
Selected Articles and References
Nova probed over refunds and deception
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20070217a1.html
English Schools face huge insurance probe
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20050412zg.html
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry press release on NOVA
http://www.meti.go.jp/press/20070613004/20070613004.html
Hard Lessons in Broken English
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hard-lessons-from-teaching-english-in-japan/2006/03/14/1142098460885.html?page=fullpage
NOVA dealt penalty for deception.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070614a1.html
NOVA probed over refunds, deception
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20070217a1.html
NOVA’s policy on refunds illegal, top court
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070404a1.html
Some translations of editorials from Japanese newspapers regarding NOVA
http://www.letsjapan.org/?q=the-japanese-newspapers-slam-nova.html
Ex-NOVA president denies he used firm for personal benefit
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20071106a3.html
NOVA fall just simple math: it bled red ink
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071106f1.html
New NOVA hours pose health risk
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20050531zg.html
Teacher’s unpaid as company falters
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/teachers-unpaid-as-company-falters/2007/09/18/1189881511712.html
Non-socialization clause illegal
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20040226b4.html
McEnglish for the masses
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20040224zg.html
The future of NOVA
After its collapse, NOVA was taken over by GCom, who is slowly reopening some of the branches, although the total number of branches currently open is still relatively small. Although many things have changed at NOVA since its collapse, unfortunately I am told these changes are often for the worse. Although old NOVA is gone, its rise and fall should be a cautionary tale for any who are tempted to seek fame and fortune via teaching english in Japan.
Saruhashi is still walking around, although he is facing a variety of charges such as embezzlement. He is also currently trying to fight a class action lawsuit from a number of students.
There are still many large and small eikaiwa in Japan, some are probably better than NOVA (such as ECC or Aeon), some are definitely worse (such as GABA or GEOS), but don’t be tempted into thinking that Eikaiwa is a good career. If you do decide to go to Japan, be warned !
As proof of the continuation of dodgy sales tactics in the industry, the Eikaiwa “Global Trinity” recently lost a lawsuit to the Kansai Consumer Support Organization (KCSO) and had to agree to alter their NOVAesque sales tactics. See press release here http://www.kc-s.or.jp/report/report1/2008/img/090304b.pdf
Selected Articles and References
Nova probed over refunds and deception
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20070217a1.html
English Schools face huge insurance probe
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20050412zg.html
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry press release on NOVA
http://www.meti.go.jp/press/20070613004/20070613004.html
Hard Lessons in Broken English
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hard-lessons-from-teaching-english-in-japan/2006/03/14/1142098460885.html?page=fullpage
NOVA dealt penalty for deception.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070614a1.html
NOVA probed over refunds, deception
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20070217a1.html
NOVA’s policy on refunds illegal, top court
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070404a1.html
Some translations of editorials from Japanese newspapers regarding NOVA
http://www.letsjapan.org/?q=the-japanese-newspapers-slam-nova.html
Ex-NOVA president denies he used firm for personal benefit
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20071106a3.html
NOVA fall just simple math: it bled red ink
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071106f1.html
New NOVA hours pose health risk
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20050531zg.html
Teacher’s unpaid as company falters
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/teachers-unpaid-as-company-falters/2007/09/18/1189881511712.html
Non-socialization clause illegal
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20040226b4.html
McEnglish for the masses
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20040224zg.html
Teaching English for Food
Japanese Lesson, How do you say "Taken for a ride"?
NOVA Corp's sacked chief in Hot Water
http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/30/nova-language-centers-markets-equity-cx_vk_1030markets03_print.html
