The Osaka High Court on Thursday sentenced the founder and former president of English conversation school operator Nova Corp. to two years in prison for embezzling 320 million yen of employees’ benefit funds, reducing a lower court sentence of three years and six months.
The defense counsel for Nozomu Sahashi, 59, plans to appeal the ruling as he has pled not guilty to the charge since his first trial at the Osaka District Court, saying he used the funds for the company and not personal benefit.
Presiding Judge Sumio Matoba determined that the accusation was upheld, however, saying the entity in charge of the funds was aimed at the welfare of employees and was separate from Nova by nature, and that Sahashi had inflicted damage to the entity.
According to the ruling, Sahashi transferred the sum accumulated at the entity to a bank account of a Nova subsidiary in July 2007 to reimburse fees students had paid on contracts that they subsequently cancelled.
But the judge recognized in handing down the shorter sentence that the embezzlement was aimed at continuing operating the company amid its management crisis and had an aspect of benefiting employees.
Sahashi launched English conversation classes in Osaka in 1981 and set up Nova in 1990. His venture once grew into Japan’s largest chain of English schools, with some 480,000 people taking language lessons at its peak.
A month after Nova went bust in October 2007, some of its business operation were taken over by Nagoya-based G.communication Co.
In August last year, Nova’s bankruptcy administrator filed a damages suit against Sahashi at the Osaka District Court, seeking about 2.1 billion yen in compensation for breach of trust.
News
Ex-Nova president sentenced to 2-year prison term for embezzlement
The former president of English conversation school Nova was handed a two-year prison sentence for corporate embezzlement by the Osaka High Court on Dec. 2.
Nozomu Sahashi, 59, had been convicted of the offence by a lower court and sentenced to a three-year, six-month prison term in August last year. The high court decision on Sahashi’s appeal confirmed his conviction for embezzling money from employees, but reduced the sentence as the funds were used to pay back customer deposits and Sahashi did not himself profit from taking the money. Sahashi intends to appeal.
According to the lower court ruling, Sahashi wrote a check for the entire amount in the Nova employees’ Shayu-kai mutual aid fund account — some 320 million yen — and deposited it in an account held by a Nova-associated company.
“The entire purpose of the Shayu-kai was employee welfare, and you used it for an entirely different purpose,” said Presiding Judge Sumio Matoba in the high court ruling. “You were Nova’s primary shareholder, and there is no trace you ever committed to returning the money you took. Thus, this court can conclude that you had criminal intent when you embezzled the funds.”
Sahashi’s defense counsel argued that “The Shayu-kai did not exist as an independent entity, but was just one part of the company. The entire sum withdrawn was set aside for refunding customers, and thus was not embezzled.” Furthermore, “If Nova had not been able to refund its customers, it would have gone bankrupt, and Mr. Sahashi fully intended to return the funds once the company attracted new investment.”
Nova was founded by Sahashi, and at its peak had some 1,000 schools nationwide. However, it was ordered to suspend part of its operations by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in June 2007. Nova declared bankruptcy in October that year. A suit the company’s bankruptcy administrator filed against Sahashi for the recovery of over 2.1 billion yen is currently being heard at the Osaka District Court.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101202p2a00m0na009000c.html
Japan lifts visa restrictions for foreign dentists, nurses
The Justice Ministry on Tuesday revised an ordinance concerning residence visas, lifting a set of restrictions for foreign dentists, nurses, maternity nurses and health workers who have Japanese state qualifications.
The step, which abolished limits on the number of years and the extent of areas in which they can work in the country, was taken on the grounds that Japan needs to accept a broad range of foreigners with specialized skills as it copes with a declining birthrate and rapidly aging population.
The revision allows foreign nurses and health workers without permanent resident status to continue working in Japanese medical institutions beyond the designated number of years. It also paves the way for foreign dentists to open their own clinics in urban areas and work at private clinics.
Until now, the ordinance limited the number of years foreigners could work under medical practitioner visas after obtaining Japanese state qualifications to six years for dentists, seven years for nurses, and four years for maternity nurses and health workers.
It also only allowed foreign dentists to work as long as they were doing clinical studies at university hospitals and to work beyond the designated number of years only while practicing in remote areas designated by the justice minister.
Abolishing the work visa restrictions was one of the agenda items cited in the government’s fourth basic plan on immigration set in March. Japan already lifted six-year working limits for foreign doctors in June 2006.
Foreigners registered under medical practitioner visas including doctors are gradually increasing, totaling 95 in 2000, 114 in 2002 and 220 in 2009.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101130p2g00m0dm059000c.html
Selective immigration for highly skilled urged
The Japan Forum on International Relations, a Tokyo-based think tank, urged the government Wednesday to accept more foreign workers and tourists while being selective in accepting long-term residents.
It says municipalities and other entities should direct foreign residents who aren’t proficient in daily Japanese to take language courses and provide them with opportunities to master practical Japanese with minimum financial burden.
On arrangements for foreigners with insufficient Japanese proficiency, the forum advised the government to ascertain their language ability prior to their arrival in the country.
Japan urged to welcome more skilled migrants
Under the proposal of the Japan Forum on International Relations, Japan would adopt a skills-based migration system and put in place social integration policies to prevent the kind of tensions seen in Europe over immigration.
While Japan historically has been reluctant to allow large-scale immigration, some opinion leaders now see it as the only way to boost domestic demand, re-energise the economy and fill labour shortages.
What Japan does on immigration will be keenly watched by multinational companies and capital markets. The country has lost favour as an investment destination because of economic and political stagnation, high corporate tax levels and a range of other factors, including the rise of China.
But it remains the world’s third-largest economy and a massive market for goods and services, so if a path to growth can be found, some of the lost interest and investment will come back.
Kenichi Ito, chairman of the forum’s policy council and one of the proposal’s main authors, said he saw Australia, Canada and the US as models for Japan’s ideal immigration system.
“If Japan wants to survive in a globalised world economy and to advance its integration with the burgeoning East Asian economy, it essentially has no other choice but to accept foreign migrants, while making full use of domestic human resources,” he said. “A key question is not whether we should accept foreign migrants or not, but how we should accept them.”
The number of foreigners moving to Japan has grown gradually from 1.5 million 10 years ago to more than 2 million now, but the growth has been very slow, particularly considering Japan’s population of 127 million.
Mr Ito told The Australian the forum had not set numerical targets for the migration intake, but that clearly a substantial increase in migration was needed.
“The annual intake is estimated to be 50,000 to 60,000 as far as the last 10 years is concerned. We think such a number is too small,” Mr Ito said.
Along with a large skills-based migrant intake, the report proposes that Japan learns from previous immigration mistakes. An almost impossible-to-pass exam for Philippine and Indonesian nurses allowed into Japan should be rewritten to focus on vocational competence rather than Japanese language proficiency; international qualifications should be more easily recognised; and foreign workers should be able to bring their families.
Mr Ito, a former diplomat who is now an emeritus professor at Tokyo’s Aoyama Gakuin University, said Japan must be careful to avoid the tensions over immigration that were affecting countries such as France, Germany and Britain.
“We should learn from Australia, the US and Canada. We should learn your system and infrastructure to adopt foreign migrants integrated into society,” he said.
To this end, the forum’s proposal suggests helping foreigners learn Japanese as the best way to “see that they do not form ethnic clusters within local communities, thereby generating communication gaps, misunderstandings or hostilities in their relations with the Japanese society or other groups of foreigners”.
The report advocates heavily subsidised Japanese learning and ensuring that municipal governments work to help migrants to settle in and establish their new lives in Japan.
Mr Ito envisages that most of the migrants would be from China, whose citizens have the advantage of knowing most of the kanji characters in use in the Japanese language.
Japan has had several tries at establishing an economic or labour-orientated migration program. The first was the disgraceful coercion of Korean migrants to speed up its pre-war industrialisation. The second was the wave of returnees it accepted from the expatriate Japanese communities in Brazil and Peru to satisfy the labour demands of its factories during the bubble economy period of the early 1990s.
The Korean community has faced prejudice but has largely prospered in Japan, although animosity remains between some Japanese and Korean-Japanese. The Latin American returnees have perhaps endured less prejudice, but are still looked down upon by some Japanese because of their jobs.
These attempts at integration were obviously not perfect, but Mr Ito said he believed Japan’s people and politicians were ready for another try.
“I feel the interest on the part of politicians on this topic is very high and keen, and public opinion will, I think, basically welcome our recommendations, though some people are concerned about the political and social consequences of too radical a shift, particularly in view of what’s happening in western European countries,” he said.
Mr Ito said Japan also needed to boost the tiny number of humanitarian migrants it accepted.
“I think Japan should be ashamed for the reluctance it has shown in taking humanitarian migrants,” he said.
The forum’s report has been 18 months in the making and has almost 90 signatories, including top academics, business leaders, former diplomats and ministerial officials and several current and former politicians.
As well as handing it to Prime Minister Kan, the group has also taken out newspaper ads drawing public attention to its contents.
Group Appeals for Overhaul of Japanese Immigration
A powerful group of politicians, academics and business leaders is set to launch an unusual campaign to urge Japan to pry open its doors to foreigners, saying the country’s survival hinges on revamping its immigration policy.
Japan has one of the most restrictive immigration policies in the world, and the debate over whether to allow more foreigners to settle in the country has long been a contentious, politically charged issue for the nation. But recently, calls to allow more foreign workers to enter Japan have become louder, as the aging population continues to shrink and the country’s competitiveness and economic growth pales in comparison with its neighbor to the west: China. A minuscule 1.7% of the overall Japanese population are foreigners, compared with 6.8% in the United Kingdom and 21.4% in Switzerland, according to the OECD.
The 87-member policy council of the Japan Forum of International Relations, a powerful nonprofit research foundation, will on Thursday launch a half-page advertisement in the country’s leading newspapers, urging Japan to rethink its immigration policy. They also submitted their policy recommendations to Naoto Kan, the country’s prime minister.
“If Japan wants to survive in a globalized world economy and to advance her integration with the burgeoning East Asian economy, she essentially has no other choice but to accept foreign migrants,” the advertisement says.
The policy council has issued several recommendations, including allowing more skilled workers to enter the labor market, particularly in industries where there are shortages of domestic workers, such as construction and the auto industry. Under economic-partnership agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines, Tokyo has allowed nurses and nursing-care specialists from these countries to enter Japan, but applicants are subjected to a grueling test in Japanese that only three people have passed. The council says these tests have to be made easier.
“Foreign employment may create employment for the Japanese—it’s bridging Japan with the rest of the world,” said Yasushi Iguchi, a professor at Kwansei Gakuin University and a member of the policy council.
Despite Japan’s stance that it doesn’t accept unskilled foreign workers, these days, Chinese cashiers are a common sight at Tokyo’s ubiquitous convenience stores; South Asian clerks are becoming more plentiful at supermarkets and on construction sites. Their ability to work in these positions is often thanks to numerous loopholes in Japan’s immigration policy, which allows students studying in Japan to work a certain number of hours a week. The country also has a technical internship program that allows younger workers to come into Japan and work as a “trainee” for a year, though this has been maligned as a cheap way to exploit foreign workers and pay them menial wages.
Mr. Kan’s government has said it wants to double the number of high-skilled foreign workers as part of its strategy to revive Japan in its growth strategy report compiled in June. The government is eyeing the introduction of a points-based system, in which it gives favored immigration treatment to foreigners depending on their past careers, accomplishments and expertise. The government also aims to increase the number of foreign students to 300,000 through initiatives such as allowing them to accept credits earned in foreign colleges and accepting more foreign teachers.
But this doesn’t mean more foreigners will necessarily want to come to Japan: in 2009, the number of foreigners who live in Japan fell for the first time in nearly half a century. Only one group bucked the trend: the Chinese, one of the few minority groups to increase its presence last year. Chinese nationals now make up nearly a third of Japan’s foreign population.
“If we stop discussing this and stop reforming, our system will be inadequate to cope with the realities,” said Mr. Iguchi. “In rural areas, we can’t maintain local industries—it will increase our competitiveness.”
Cram school buys out Shane English School
Cram school operator Eikoh Inc. said Friday it has acquired Shane English School to strengthen its English-language education for elementary school children ahead of the planned compulsory teaching of the language for fifth- and sixth-graders.
Eikoh, based in the Kanto region, didn’t disclose how much it paid for the acquisition of shares in the four operating companies that run the English school chain, which mainly operates in the Tokyo metropolitan area. [Other reports claim that around the purchase was for approximately 1 billion yen, or $12 million dollars, a similar amount as Eikoh paid for Nellie’s and Shane Language Services in early October 2010, both of which were also owned by Saxoncourt.]
Representatives of both Eikoh and Shane English School said the acquisition won’t involve personnel cuts or other drastic changes in operations.
Shane English School, a British English school owned by Saxoncourt Holdings, Ltd. based in the British Virgin Islands, operates 199 branches across the Kanto region, of which 46 are franchised.
[Eikoh Inc. business management division representative Hiroyuki ] Otsubo said Eikoh has no plans to change the number of teachers working for Shane English School and its roughly 20,000 students will continue receiving the same services.
Eikoh operates 380 cram schools and has 67,000 students. A press release from Eikoh said that in the Tokyo area, Shane already holds 60 percent of its classes in the same location as classes hosted by Eikoh.
Takehiko Kikuchi, a PR representative for Shane English School, said company employees and teachers received the news calmly.
Companies going all-out in English
Enhancing employee English-language skills has become a high-priority management challenge for Japanese corporations, regardless of their size and industry.
This is especially true for companies whose survival hinges on developing new customers or clients in foreign markets. They are focusing in particular on fast-growing Asian economies, where English is becoming the common means of communication.
Out of necessity, [a a midsize general engineering contractor headquartered in Kawasaki looking to expand in Asia] in spring 2009 launched an English-language training program targeting veteran engineers in their 40s and 50s suffering from “English-phobia,” [the senior general manager of sales] said.
Once a week for two hours, about 40 employees attend one of four classes based on their level of English proficiency. Four instructors — two Americans, a Briton and a Filipino — are dispatched to the classes from an English school. They cover topics ranging from telephone conversation and discussions in conferences to writing e-mail and preparing contracts.
“To double our oversea sales, we must at least double the number of engineers and other staff who have practical English-language skills”.
Ginza hostesses sue upscale club over unpaid wages
The former hostesses, aged in their 20s and 30s, are seeking a labor ruling in the Tokyo District Court, demanding a total of 4.38 million yen in compensation.
According to case documents, one of the former hostesses aged in her 30s joined the club in December 2009, agreeing to a daily wage of 46,000 yen. However her pay was docked by 10 to 100 percent for reasons such as late arrival, leaving early, and failing to reach targets for bringing in customers.
Between January and July this year, she was completely without pay, and had to rely on advance wage payments. With ballooning debts, she left her job at the end of August. The other two former hostesses were in similar positions, and the three joined the Kyabakura Union, a union for hostess club employees. They sought payment of unpaid wages, but negotiations broke down.
Commenting on the case, lawyer Ichiro Natsume said, “The work conditions of the former hostesses were controlled with time cards and their quotas were imposed by the club. Their treatment constitutes a violation of the Labor Standards Law.”
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101112p2a00m0na012000c.html
Building a ‘Little Yangon’ in Tokyo
For Tokyo’s community of Burmese, however, Takadanobaba is something much more important: a home away from home. In fact, so many of them have gathered there that it has come to be known as Little Yangon. Although they number only a few thousand, the mutual support and sense of community have been vital for their survival in a country that offers precious little official support to refugees and migrants.
Japanese employers are sometimes hesitant to hire foreign staff, concerned that there may be problems due to language and cultural differences.
Phone Hlaing, the vice president of a Burmese labor union, admits these concerns can sometimes be justified. “Half of the problems the union sees are because of misunderstandings, because of language problems. So foreigners should learn the Japanese language.”
Phone also wishes the hosts would be more accepting of other cultures. “Japanese also think they are superior to other Asians. This is the mindset,” he says. “There is discrimination, but we have to show that we can work together.”
For the children of Burmese immigrants, the struggle is less about language and more about their place in society. Often, they have been placed in the public school system and can speak Japanese and understand Japanese culture, but are unable to shake their status as outsiders, leaving them stuck between a native country they don’t quite remember and a host country that doesn’t quite accept them. Reports of bullying are not uncommon.
The number of Burmese community groups operating in Tokyo is truly astounding considering their relatively small numbers. There are workers’ unions, student unions, groups for many of Myanmar’s hundred-plus ethnic groups, religious organizations, political advocacy groups, government lobbyists, a Burmese library, and even Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has a branch here. And every Burmese adult belongs to at least one of these groups.
This high rate of political participation is key to understanding the character of the Burmese community in Japan. Contrary to the popular belief that all refugees want to permanently settle in their host countries, most Burmese would not settle in Japan long-term if they were given the choice.
As Saw Ba [Saw Ba Hla Thein, vice chairman of the Karen Nation League Japan and a consultant to the Japanese government on issues affecting the ethnic Karen community] puts it, “The Japanese love Japan and they want to live in Japan. We also love our country and want to live there. We want to live in our native land.”
For the Burmese, all of the protests and attempts to influence Japanese policy are done in the hope of one day being able to go back to a free and democratic Burma. They may have created a Little Yangon in Takadanobaba, but for most of them it is at best a temporary replacement they would leave in a heartbeat for the real thing.