Teaching bunny commits suicide

In what seems to be a week of people and things going down, I’ve just found out that it seems Nova has declared bankruptcy, as of this morning. Nova is the McDonald’s of the English Conversation industry in Japan – the biggest of the big dogs, and pretty soon it may well be something of the past. Nova’s problems have been ongoing for quite a while, but this year it seems to have all come to a head with teachers and staff being unpaid, the government ruling against them in a case dealing with students and fees, and work places being repossessed after rent has gone unpaid (as well as teachers’ accommodation). This has led to teachers walking out, strikes, and school closures in recent months. More recently some senior members resigned, and the president went into hiding.

Most of which is pretty dark for the people involved – staff and students. And I guess some management. But by and large those at the top have probably known it was gonna go pear shape for a while, and they’re the ones who really have to answer for the collapse of what seemed to be an unmovable corporate giant for a long time. Thing is the business world is a cruel one. The president hasn’t made things easier, having been trying to worm his way out of any responbility since it all kicked off this year. Though that seems to have finally stopped if the claims of bankruptcy filed this morning are correct.

I got to admit stories of teachers being unpaid, evicted from their flats (for which they pay rent to Nova), school property being repossessed, distributors refusing to honor unpaid contracts etc… are pretty grim, especially if you work in the same industry. Obviously Nova being the biggest, it was always the most likely to suffer from the shady practices of the industry – practices which are copied elsewhere but with less reaching impact especially if the company is smaller. And the thing is with English Conversation being about money more than teaching, it’s no surprise – you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Though I’m sure that those most likely to suffer are the lower level staff rather than anyone who’s actually had any responsibility in this.

I can’t find any stories online about this yet, I got an email telling me this a few hours ago from a reliable source, so I’m assuming it’ll come out within 24h. Though if you get your google on there’s plenty of stories about the recent happenings and what might happen next. Alex Case’s also been posting regular links to Nova news for those too lazy to search themselves (like me!). With Nova employing around 8000 teachers in some 900 schools across Japan, their going down is likely to be one of the biggest consumer scandals in Japanese history. Looking at their track record though, and their business practice, it’s unlikely to leave cynic commentators feeling sorry for them. As I said those who’re losing the most are the teachers and low level staff – as always. There’s also a chance the repercussions across the entire industry may prove to be less than beneficial. Right now my current employer’s been taking on quite a lot of people. And an increase in both students and teachers on the market can go two ways: more business with more teachers, or less business with more teachers. Whichever way I don’t think I want to stick around too long to find out how it goes down.

Lucky for me I’ve just bagged a new job, so soon enough I may be out of the English Conversation world, which is a lot sooner than I thought, but by the looks of it may be just in time too.