Ex-Nova president admits to embezzling, but counsel pleads not guilty

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The former president of English conversation school operator Nova Corp. admitted to embezzling employment benefit funds shortly before the company went bankrupt at his first court hearing Monday at the Osaka District Court.

But defense counsel for Nozomu Sahashi, 57, claimed his actions were in the interest of the employees and do not constitute the crime of professional embezzlement, pleading not guilty.

“It cannot be judged whether it is embezzlement or not,” Sahashi said.

According to the indictment, Sahashi diverted about 320 million yen from an employment benefit fund on July 20, 2007, transferring the money to the bank account of an affiliate company.

He is believed to have used it to reimburse tuition fees to those who canceled their contracts for language lessons.

“I apologize for causing students and employees great trouble,” Sahashi said at the beginning of the hearing.

Nova went bust in October 2007, leaving thousands of employees jobless and its students without refunds.

Nagoya-based G.communication Co. took over some of Nova’s operations in November that year.

Separate from the criminal case, former Nova students filed a lawsuit at the Osaka District Court seeking a total of 16 million yen in damages from Sahashi, the former management team and the audit corporation over their prepaid lesson fees.

Sahashi launched English conversation classes in Osaka in 1981 and set up Nova in 1990. His venture grew into Japan’s largest chain of English schools, with some 480,000 people taking its language lessons at its peak, before going bankrupt.

http://www.pddnet.com/news-ap-lead-ex-nova-president-admits-to-embezzling-but–053109/

Ex-NOVA president admits diverting funds but says it wasn’t embezzlement

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[Former Nova President Nozomu] Sahashi is under indictment on charges of embezzlement in the conduct of business for transferring 320 million yen from the account of the employees’ mutual assistance association into another account in July 2007, exchanging the money for a check and placing the funds in an affiliate’s account.

A prosecutor said in the opening statement that Sahashi embezzled the funds because NOVA was pinched for money. “The defendant committed the crime after his firm became hard-pressed for cash and had difficulties repaying tuition fees to students who cancelled their contracts.”

The prosecutor said that on July 19, 2007, the day before the alleged crime, Sahashi instructed an accountant in the firm to use money from the association to refund tuition fees.

The accountant told him that the money in the association cannot be used that way. However, Sahashi said, “I know that, but we have no choice because we have no other funds,” according to the opening statement.

Moreover, apart from the 320 million yen, prosecutors accuse Sahashi of misappropriating approximately 30 million yen from the mutual assistance association between March 2004 and March 2007.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20090601p2a00m0na010000c.html

Immigration bills threaten rights of foreigners: critics

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Representatives of municipalities and human rights groups voiced their opposition Thursday to government-sponsored immigration bills they say will lead to violations of foreigners’ rights and excessive control over them.

The proposed bills would issue new “zairyu” (residency) cards to replace their alien registration cards. Failure to carry the cards or report any changes in status could lead to a fine of up to ¥200,000, and failure to comply within three months could lead to one’s visa being canceled.

Alien registration is currently handled by local ward offices, but the new bills would hand responsibility for that task — and any records collected — to the Justice Ministry.

Hiroko Uehara, the former mayor of the city of Kunitachi in western Tokyo, refused to connect the municipality’s resident registry network to the nationwide Juki Net network in 2002 to protect residents’ privacy. She warned that transferring the management of alien registration from municipalities to immigration offices would reduce the quality of service for foreign residents.

“Municipalities have so far made an effort to provide, at their own discretion, services to foreign residents,” Uehara told a gathering in Tokyo. “But if immigration takes control of registration, all that effort will be lost,” she said. 

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090529a3.html

5,631 temps killed, injured in work accidents in 2008

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A total of 5,631 dispatch workers were killed or injured in work-related accidents in 2008, many of them inexperienced workers in the manufacturing industry, according to a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry report.

While the figure is 254 lower than in 2007, it is still high–more than eight times the number injured or killed in 2004, when a ban on dispatching workers to the manufacturing industry was lifted.

The manufacturing industry accounted for 64.8 percent of cases–62.9 percent of whom were workers with less than one year’s experience at the companies in question.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090528TDY03102.htm

Proposed foreigner card protested

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Opponents of change to immigration law fear loss of privacy, other human rights violations

More than 200 people [including former members of the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu] rallied in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district Sunday to protest government-sponsored immigration bills they claim would violate the privacy of foreign residents and strengthen government control over them.

The protesters say the proposed system would allow the government to punish non-Japanese who fail to properly report their personal information, and could even make it possible for immigration authorities to arbitrarily revoke their visas.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090525a1.html

IC you: bugging the alien

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New gaijin cards could allow police to remotely track foreigners

When the Japanese government first issued alien registration cards (aka gaijin cards) in 1952, it had one basic aim in mind: to track “foreigners” (at that time, mostly Korean and Taiwanese stripped of Japanese colonial citizenship) who decided to stay in postwar Japan.

Gaijin cards put foreigners in their place: Registry is from age 16, so from a young age they were psychologically alienated from the rest of Japanese society. So what if they were born and acculturated here over many generations? Still foreigners, full stop.

Even today, when emigrant non-Japanese far outnumber the native-born, the government tends to see them all less as residents, more as something untrustworthy to police and control. Noncitizens are not properly listed on residency registries. Moreover, only foreigners must carry personal information (name and address, personal particulars, duration of visa status, photo, and — for a time — fingerprints) at all times. Gaijin cards must also be available for public inspection under threat of arrest, one year in jail and ¥200,000 in fines.

However, the Diet is considering a bill abolishing those gaijin cards.

Sounds great at first: Under the proposed revisions, non-Japanese would be registered properly with residency certificates (juminhyo). Maximum visa durations would increase from three years to five. ID cards would be revamped. Drafters claim this will “protect” (hogo) foreigners, making their access to social services more “convenient.”

However, read the fine print. The government is in fact creating a system to police foreigners more tightly than ever.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090519zg.html

Exploited workers lose $20B a year

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The exploitation of workers is a huge business worldwide.

People forced to work without pay collectively lose more than $20 billion a year in earnings, according to a report from the United Nations International Labour Organization released Tuesday.

Global profits from human trafficking and forced labor have reached $36 billion, according to the United Nations, and that sum is climbing.

“Forced labor is the antithesis of decent work,” ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said in a statement as the report became public. “It causes untold human suffering and steals from its victims.”

“It is the vulnerable who suffer the most” in times of economic crisis like the present, the report says.

Read more

Japan: Birthrate report shows it’s not getting any younger

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A report says Japan’s ratio of children is now down to 13%, boding ill for the labor pool and pension funds.

Japan, which designates every May 5 as Children’s Day, had fewer children to celebrate the holiday for the 28th straight year, underscoring a demographic shift that could eventually wreak havoc on the world’s second-largest economy.

A government report released this week says the number of children younger than 15 as of April 1 had fallen to about 17 million. Japan’s proportion of children — which has been declining for 35 years — now stands at just 13% of the country’s 128 million people.

In contrast, Japan’s elderly population is swelling. The number of people 65 and older has reached 22.5% and continues to climb.

The unprecedented changes in Japan’s population, fueled by low birthrates and one of the highest life expectancies in the world, are expected to strain government services and pension programs, as well as lead to labor shortages.

Japan now has the lowest percentage of children among 31 major countries, trailing Germany and Italy, according to the report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Children make up about 20% of the U.S. population and 17% in Japan’s neighbor South Korea.

The Japanese government’s efforts to boost the birthrate have been unsuccessful, and lawmakers have long been reluctant to relax the country’s strict immigration laws.

As part of his recent economic stimulus measures, Prime Minister Taro Aso called for new subsidies for childbirth costs and an expansion of neonatal intensive care units.

Officials have also stepped up programs that encourage the elderly to stay active and working. The government has been gradually extending the retirement age to 65 from 60, and is now pushing for an extension to 70. Tokyo also introduced a health insurance system last year to deal with ballooning medical costs for people 75 and older.

In a dozen years, the percentage of children is projected to drop to less than 11%, while the proportion of those 65 and older is likely to rise to 29%, according to government estimates. Japan’s population posted its sharpest decline ever last year, falling by 51,000.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-birth6-2009may06,0,155406.story

Unions gather in Tokyo, nationwide for May Day labor events

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Members of Japan’s labor unions gathered in Tokyo and other cities across the country for the 80th Central May Day event Friday.

The participants called for a halt to both temporary and permanent worker layoffs, under slogans such as “Eliminate unemployment and poverty!” and “Major companies, use your reserves and protect employment!”

The National Trade Union Council (Zenrokyo) held its gathering at Hibiya Park, where participants called for drastic revisions to the Temporary Staffing Services Law and employment guarantees, among other demands.

Both groups adopted a number of May Day resolutions, and held demonstrations in the city over labor issues.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090501p2a00m0na019000c.html

Foreign workers who take gov’t support to head home angered by re-entry restriction

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Laid-off foreign workers of Japanese descent who accept financial support from the Japanese government to return to their home countries have been dismayed to learn that they will not be allowed to return to Japan.

“‘Don’t come back.’ Maybe that’s what they’re saying,” says 62-year-old Tess Ohashi sadly. Ohashi is a second generation Brazilian of Japanese descent who lives in Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture, where 12 percent of the residents are Brazilians, the highest rate in the country.

Not all agree with the re-entry restrictions. “There is a need to think wisely and allow re-entry for those who repay their travel expenses,” remarked Yasutomo Suzuki, mayor of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, at a press conference on April 20. Hamamatsu is home to many Brazilians of Japanese descent.

“It’s possible that the ‘for the time being’ provision may become semi-permanent,” says former Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau chief Hidenori Sakanaka.

“People of Japanese descent are living here under qualifications granted to them under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. For the Ministry of Justice to forbid such people who used a system that has been introduced without deliberation in the Diet from re-entering Japan is beyond the discretion of the minister for justice and is also a violation of the equality guaranteed by the Japanese Constitution,” Sakanaka concluded.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/news/20090430p2a00m0na002000c.html