Let's Japan.org

Ichihashi Still on the Loose

Shawn — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:24:23 +0000

Police on Thursday released a new photo of Tatsuya Ichihashi, the suspect in the slaying of a British woman in 2007, that was taken last month at a Nagoya clinic before he underwent cosmetic surgery there but after he apparently had had at least one face-lift elsewhere.

Several facial features have apparently changed — he now has double-fold eyelids, a higher nose and thin lips. Two moles that had been on his left cheek have disappeared as well, according to police.

Ichihashi, 30, is wanted in connection with the murder of Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, an English teacher.

In another development Thursday, investigative sources said Ichihashi had attempted to undergo cosmetic surgery in Fukuoka Prefecture in mid-October before his Oct. 24 face-lift in Nagoya.

It's been two and a half years since he escaped 9 police officers on foot with no wallet, no mobile phone, and no shoes. How does a person with no money and only the clothes on his back to make it to Nagoya and Fukuoka? He's either being helped (by his parents? I seem to recall them cooperating with police but they have been invisible during the investigation) or has manged to scrape some money together by working the odd job.

It doesn't say much about the effort by the police. Two years after Lindsey Hawker's death, the best the Chiba Police could do is create five measly cardboard models of Ichihashi that play a recording of Ichihashi's voice. Bill Hawker was not amused. While this video doesn't show it, he was upset over the fact that only five of the models existed and knocked one of them over in disgust.

Japan murder: Family appeal 2 years on
by ITN

For what it's worth, if you have information, contact the Chiba Prefectural Police at 047-397-0110 or email to gyoutoku@police.pref.chiba.jp. You can also send information here.

Why Ichihashi would resort to cosmetic surgery to avoid capture becomes clearer given the nature of his crime. It has been widely reported that Lindsay's body was found in a bathtub of sand, but an article in The Times last year suggests that's not accurate. He wasn't trying to conceal her body, he was trying to dispose of it.

Again, it was widely reported that she was found in a bath full of sand but this too was wrong. Lindsay had actually been buried in a mixture of sand and compost soil which Ichihashi had soaked in a chemical the Japanese use to compact and decompose waste. The police believe he had simply taken a practical approach to disposing of Lindsay’s body. It would be hard to take her out and hide her so he would keep her there until eventually all trace of her was gone. He had cut her hair off and left it in a bag found in the apartment. Hair is evidently slow to rot.

They can't catch this guy fast enough.

Engine Noise as a Feature

Shawn — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:36:49 +0000

For the past while, I've been seeing reports on TV and in the newspapers about the danger of hybrid vehicles being too quiet when running on battery power at low speeds. This isn't something new, but as more hybrids take to the roads, pedestrians are worrying about their safety. The Japan Times reported on it last month:

One of the virtues of owning a hybrid or electric car is its super-quiet noise signature. But worries are growing that blind people are being endangered by the vehicles' silence.

The government has set up a panel involving automakers, consumer groups and organizations for the blind to find a solution, which could lead to the emission of virtual engine noise or sounds similar to cell phone ring tones, officials said.

A legal change would be needed to equip the vehicles with the special noise-making feature.

As for the panel, documents from the their initial meeting suggest that it's not clear a serious problem even exists. One document [PDF] points out that automakers have received 60 inquiries about the quietness of hybrids over the past 4 years. A sampling of the comments suggests the silence of the cars is more of an annoyance than an danger with comments ranging from someone being startled by a hybrid silently creeping up next to them to the hope that hybrids get some other device beside their horn to alert pedestrians.

The danger from quiet hybrids sounds overblown. First, it's not clear that a problem exists. Is the Prius really that quiet or it is the high ambient noise level that makes the car difficult to hear? Lord knows Japan's cities have a terrible noise pollution problem. It's also not clear how mandating that hybrids make a fake engine noise or emit a chime increases safety when regular "noisy" cars aren't any less prone to running over people. Are the horns hybrids are equipped with not good enough to warn people? Is this really a problem with the car or with pedestrians and drivers failing to pay attention to their surroundings or drive with care?

Apart from their fuel economy, hybrid vehicles are an opportunity to reduce the noise pollution that surrounds us all day. The silence of hybrids should be a plus, not a problem. The transport ministry forgets that part of what makes the experience of pedestrian zones (hokosha tengoku) and other public places inviting and pleasurable is their absence of vehicles and the din of traffic. Rather than trying to find a way for pedestrians and cars to co-exist, perhaps the transport ministry should think about separating the two instead of applying a techno band-aid.

The fake engine noise requirement doesn't bode well for electric vehicles if and when they are mass produced. Will they have to make noise as well? The answer, at least in the U.S., seems to be, yes. Cue "car tones."

Open Thread: Rumours About GEOS and Two Years After NOVA's Collapse

Shawn — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:57:16 +0000

Let's start an open thread for kicks. I won't call it an End of GEOS thread, but if you have have something to add, comment on it here.

Today is also notable as it marks two years since Nova went bankrupt. Although Nova is a shell of its former self, it's collapse has left its mark on eikaiwa. The final chapter has yet to be written as Sahashi appeals his conviction while trying to avoid hotel visits from gangsters.

What's on your mind?

Rumour: GEOS Late in Paying Salaries

Shawn — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:03:53 +0000

Novawhiz noticed an update to the GEOS Wikipedia page that was quickly removed:

Recent economic woes have lead Geos to be late paying the Japanese staff in August and September 2009. It is further reported that foreign teachers working at the adult schools were not paid on time in October 2009. Geos is currently asking clients to pay as much as 5 months in advance for the following year's lessons in a bid to raise the necessary funds to meet payroll obligations. This financial distress has led to many Japanese staff members to resign.

The edit in question can be found here.

There may be some truth to this. A thread in a kuchikomi message board wonders the same thing: were the staff late in getting paid? In response to the question, the first post was:

2009/09/22 19:21

はい！！！

そのとうりです！毎月月末のスタッフのお給料がでませんでした。
本部から自宅に電話があり、お金がないので今海外校に送金手続きをしてもらっているから１週間待ってくださいと・・・。
スタッフに払う金がない？？？？
ありえない・・・。
すぐに上司にやめたいと言いました。
却下・・・・。
周りのMGは妊娠した、入院する、母ががん。。。とうそをついて辞めようと必死です。
今月でるのでしょうか・・・。お給料。
NOVAの次とは聞いてますが、いよいよ破産近し・・・・です。

Yes!!!!
Head office called me at home to say that they had no money and to wait a week until they can process wire transfers from overs schools.
They don't have any cash to pay staff????
That's unbelievable.
I immediately told my boss that I wanted to quit.
Got rejected...
Other managers I know are scrambling to quit, saying they're pregnant, have to be hospitalized, or their mother has cancer.
I wonder if we'll be paid this month?
I've heard GEOS would be next after NOVA. Looks like it's ready to go under.

Another commented:

2009/09/30 21:44
9/30日本日もお給料入っていませんでした！！！！！
２回目です。NOVAは４回目の社員お給料遅延で破綻。
いったいどうなるんでしょうか。
２ヶ月もお給料遅れるなんてまずいですね。

2009/09/30 21:44
It's 9/30 and I haven't been paid !!!!
This is the second time. NOVA went bust after pay was late for the 4th time.
What the hell is going on?
Getting paid late for 2 months running is not good.

Another poster says pay was late for instructors, too:

2009/09/30 22:31

今回は講師も遅れましたね。

今回はシステムエラーなのかミスなのか
、まあどっちでもいいですが、2カ月続いての事なので
「ホントかよ！？」って感じです。

2009/09/30 22:31

It happened to the instructors, too.

Whether it was a system error or a mistake, it's happened 2 months in a row. What's up with that?!

Another comment about a "system error:"

2009/09/30 23:26

今日も給料入ってませんでした。本部のシステムエラーだとメールがきていましたが、それが本当のことならあってはいけないミスですよね。かえって売り上げが悪く支払いが遅れますと言ってくれた方がましです。こんなことだからCSの案内するのに気が引けるっつうの。

2009/09/30 23:26

I haven't been paid this month. I got an email from head office saying that it was a system error, but if that's true, it's an inexcusable mistake. I'd rather hear from someone that sales are down and salaries will be late. I'm not up to doing CS [Commission sales] because of this.

Another commenter adds that they finally got paid:

2009/10/05 23:37

９月は１日遅れで入りました！
システムエラーだそうです。
先生が辞める！！！と言い出したのでなだめるのに大変でした＞＜！！

2009/10/05 23:37

September's pay was a day late but I got it!
Apparently it was a system error.
Teachers have started saying that they'll quit and I've had a tough time trying to smooth things over!!

Finally, a student chimed in to say:

2009/09/26 19:20

私は、ジオスに通っている生徒です。
契約更新をするかしないか・・・迷っています。

＞更新時に「ジオスはつぶれませんよね」
＞と言われて「今のところ大丈夫ですよ」としか
＞言えませんでした。

私も、同じ質問をしたところ、
「分からないですからね。」と言われ、
半年契約（？）を勧められました。

先生は凄くいい人で、続けたい気持ちはあるのですが、
NOVAのようにお金だけ払って続けられなくなったらと思うと
怖いです。
年内にも経営破たんをしてしまうのでしょうか。

※ジオスのHPで経営状況を確認したかったのですが、
【売上高：164億円（'06.12月期）】
となっており、通常'08（2009年更新）の売上高が
記載されるべきなのに、過去のものが記載されており、
確認ができませんでした。
2009/09/26 19:20

I'm currently a student at GEOS. I'm thinking about renewing but am having second thoughts

＞They ask during renewals, "GEOS isn't going to go bankrupt, right?," but all I could say was," Right now everything is fine."

When I asked the same question, they told me they didn't know and tried to sell me a 6-month contract (?).

The teachers are really good people and I want to continue, but I'm scared to think that things might end up like NOVA where you pay and are then unable to take lessons.
I wonder if they'll go bankrupt by the end of the year?

*I looked up GEOS's finances on their website and found their sales were 16.4 billion yen (for the period ending Dec. '06) but couldn't find any new numbers even though sales figures for FY'08 should be up there.

These are anonymous comments and I have no way of knowing how much truth there is to what's been said. If the "system error" explanation sounds familiar, it's because NOVA used the same excuse to explain why it had not paid their staff.

Can anybody flesh this out some more? Has pay been late for the past two months? Is this just a one-off event or a sign of more serious trouble to come?

This is how the end came for NOVA. First it was the staff, and then it was the instructors not getting paid. If the rumour is true and the staff has been late in getting paid, it's time to start thinking about Plan B. You don't want to repeat the fisaco of ex-NOVA instructors getting re-hired. The moment you don't get paid, get the hell out as fast as you can. You certainly don't want to end up teaching in a park for food.

A Terrible Triangle

Shawn — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:24:26 +0000

The latest development in the dirty undertaking of dispatch teaching:

A labor union of foreign workers requested Monday that the Aichi prefectural board of education address the concerns of English-language instructors at public schools who they say are working under illegal contracts.

The General Union, based in the city of Osaka, said an investigation it conducted last month and communications with municipal boards of education show that foreign teaching assistants in 16 school districts in the prefecture are contracted by private language schools or other agents rather than the school boards themselves.

The union charges that by going through agencies, the school boards are "avoiding the obligation of hiring them directly that comes after a certain period of (temporary) employment has elapsed."

It's all slowly coming to a head. Nothing illustrates the situation better than this 2005 letterfrom the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) acknowledging that gyomu itaku (outsourcing contracts) are illegal.

This notice was sent to all prefectural BOEs, and advises that they give preference to JETs, direct hires, and legal dispatch jobs over gyomu itaku with private dispatch companies. It also recommends that skilled ALTs be made permanent employees （正社員）.

Paragraph 3 in the appendix also contains some noteworthy items. It notes that dispatch contracts can only be made with ministry-approved dispatch companies and that BOEs should make sure they are dealing with approved companies before entering into a contract. It also notes that dispatch contracts are valid for 3 years whereupon the ALT must be made a permanent employee.

This letter is the kind of thing that should lay the foundation for ALT positions to be decent jobs, but instead, what we have is a terrible triangle.

BOEs: Lazy and cheap. They want ALTs in classrooms but don't want any of the hassles that come with having to manage foreigners. They know that dispatch companies can be unscrupulous but use them anyway. They like the steady supply of cheap instructors but aren't smart enough to figure out why the teacher turnover is so high.

MEXT: The letter shows that they are aware of illegal hiring practices, but they aren't doing anything beyond issuing guidance. This particular letter was written in 2005, and clearly nothing has been done in the past 4 years. Recall the fate of Samantha, covered by NHK in 2007. Fast forward to the present, and we still have the same abuses happening to ALTs like Robert and Eric.

ALTs: For some unknown reason, despite the information one can find on the internet about dispatch companies and teaching in Japan, teachers still insist on being taken advantage of by their employers. They work for low pay and no benefits because they'd rather not give up on their dream/fantasy/plan of living in Japan.

Where is the breaking point? There is absolutely no justification to put up with such terrible working conditions. At what point does the whole mess collapse under the weight of its own bullshit? Who takes the first step in breaking the triangle? Do the BOEs smarten up? Does MEXT do something beyond issuing memos? Do ALTs quit in droves or strike for better working conditions?

Much Ado About Nothing

Shawn — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:27:31 +0000

A quick blurb in the newspaper, the Mainichi reports that the three men arrested on suspicion of confining Sahashi in his hotel room have been released.

Apparently the police don't have much of a case on them. At any rate, the thugs caught with Sahashi are probably thinking, "Mission accomplished." They delivered their message.

Mainichi article

ＮＯＶＡ元社長事件：監禁容疑で逮捕の３人釈放　東京地検　

東京地検は１９日、経営破綻（はたん）した英会話学校最大手「ＮＯＶＡ」（破産手続き中）元社長、猿橋望被告（５８）＝業務上横領罪で実刑判決、控訴中＝の監禁容疑で逮捕された指定暴力団山口組系組員（３８）ら３人を、処分保留で釈放した。

警視庁は、９月２８日に東京都中央区のホテル一室で猿橋被告を監禁したとして３人を逮捕した。捜査関係者によると、組員らは警視庁の調べに「一緒にいただけ」などと容疑を否認。猿橋被告もホテル内から外部に電話で連絡を取っていたといい、地検はホテルでのやりとりについて捜査を継続する。

毎日新聞　2009年10月19日　20時42分

The Coming Spring Shock

Shawn — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 07:07:56 +0000

The Japan Times ran a couple of articles last week on the coming changes in health insurance for foreigners in Japan.

As you are probably already aware, starting next April, you will have to show proof of enrollment in shakai hoken (SH) or kokumin kenko hoken (KKH) when you apply to renew your visa. Jenny Uechi reminds us of the law:

If you are working for a company in Japan, chances are that you are (or need to be) enrolled in shakai hoken, in which you pay half of your health insurance premiums and your company pays the rest. There isn't much ambiguity about shakai hoken: If a company employs more than five people, and an employee is working more than 20 hours a week for a period longer than 2 months, the company is obligated to submit paperwork for an employee's health insurance and pension to the Social Insurance Agency within five days of hiring. With shakai hoken comes the kosei nenkin, or pension plan; the two are a set, and enrollment is mandatory whether you plan to retire in Japan or not.

Meanwhile, people who are unemployed, self-employed, employed by a small firm or retired should be enrolled in kokumin kenko hoken (national health insurance). People paying into this system have to sign up on their own for kokumin nenkin (the national pension) at their city ward office.

Unfortunately a lot of English instructors are unaware of the law and find themselves in a position like "Patrick Johnson:"

Patrick Johnson (not his real name), an assistant language teacher, has recently had to fork out over ¥700,000 in back payments for the last two years he has been living in Japan without national health insurance. He has just paid his final monthly installment of ¥75,000, he explains with a tired sigh of relief. He used to pay for private insurance, but has left the scheme now he is covered by kokumin kenko hoken.

Johnson, who works for a large corporation with far more than five employees, is well aware that he should technically be enrolled in shakai hoken, where his company pays 50 percent of his premiums. But because his contract states that he only works 29.5 hours — well over the 20-hour limit but .5 of an hour below the limit that usually triggers a government crackdown — the company can instead oblige him to sign up for the other option, where he has to bear 100 percent of the cost.

"You know how the system works," he says wearily, as though hour-fudging is a given in Japan's language-teaching industry.

Johnson reflects on his experience with more resignation than rage. Last year, he says, the city started sending letters asking him to pay health insurance. Since he already had private coverage through his company, he did not think much of it, but started panicking when the city approached his company asking for his bank information. Then one day it happened — he saw ¥50,000 had vanished from his bank account

His experience is typical of most instructors. They are generally unaware that their employers should be enrolling them in an insurance scheme and are surprised to learn that they owe up to two years in back payments when they finally do get properly enrolled. This is also one of the reasons why many would like to avoid SH or KKH--they are expensive.

Which brings me to Ronald Kessler's Zeit Gist column in which he argues that foreigners in Japan have special healthcare needs and that for vital reasons of communication, level of service, and repatriation of remains, foreigners should be able to presumably opt out of SH or KKH and choose their own plans.

There are a few problems with Mr. Kessler's argument, however. First, enrollment in SH and KKH is mandated by law, and, lke taxes, you can't choose to not pay. He also forgets to mention that if foreigners do need extra coverage, they can get it from one of Japan's private insurance companies. This is in fact what many Japanese do to cover the gap between SH or KKH should they be hospitalized for an extended period of time. Moreover, he fails to provide any specifics as to what other health insurance plans make them preferable to Japan's public ones. What are the cheaper and more comprehensive health insurance plans? Are they universally accepted across Japan?

One point I agree with him on is that it is curious that Immigration, not the Social Insurance Agency, will effectively be enforcing enrollment. This shifts the burden of enrollment on the instructors, not their employers.

If the government wants to enforce enrollment in this odd manner, then that's there prerogative. Personally, I don't see this an issue of choice insomuch as it is a labour issue. As has been mentioned on LJ before, employers play fast and loose with working hours, drawing up 29.5 hour work weeks so they can avoid having to enroll their instructors in a health plan even if their instructors are physically at school on a full-time basis.

Instead of putting the burden on instructors to enroll, the Social Insurance Agency should be cracking down on the schools who shirk their legal obligations.

One thing is for sure, there will be more than a few instructors who are hit for back payments when they are ultimately forced to enroll. There may even be a few who are unable to renew their visas.

It's time for instructors to be prepared. If your visa is up for renewal next spring, make sure you have some money set aside in case you are have to make back payments. While costly, you can negotiate with local governments and set up a payment schedule that fits your budget or even get your payments reduced.

It's also time to start making some noise about your working conditions. Even "Patrick Johnson" knew his employer was gaming the system yet he turned a blind eye. Don't let your employer rob you of your right to healthcare in Japan. For all its warts and deficiencies, SH and KKH cover you, no questions asked. The choice involved here is not which plan is better for foreigners in Japan, but choosing to stand up to your employer and demanding your right to healthcare coverage.

Sahashi Confined by Gangsters?

Shawn — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:00:16 +0000

According to the Yomiuri shimbun, Nozomu Sahsahi, NOVA's disgraced and convicted ex-president, was confined in his hotel room for three days by gangsters. The police have arrested two men, one who is a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate, in connection with the incident.

Sahashi had apparently traveled to Tokyo, and when his lawyer became unable to contact him over the weekend, he went to the police. The police found Sahashi yesterday afternoon in his hotel room in Nihonbashi where they arrested two men whom they allege held Sahsahi for roughly 3 and a half hours. The men claim that they were merely with Sahashi (and that they didn't hold him against his will).

Many will be disappointed to learn that Sahashi was not injured. The police are investigating the circumstances of the incident.

Assuming it wasn't a social call, one possible reason for the "visit" may have to do with Sahashi's mysterious stock dealings as NOVA crashed and burned around him. Desperate to come up with some cash, he put his shares in NOVA up as collateral only to be swindled out of five million of them. One name that came up in the course of the dealings was Nishida Haruo, who appears to have made a career out of stock manipulation. Perhaps Sahashi owes some bad people some money. Then again, he is arrogant enough that you could not completely rule out him demanding his shares back, either.

Yomiuri article

ＮＯＶＡ元社長を監禁容疑、組員ら逮捕

経営破綻(はたん)した英会話学校「ＮＯＶＡ」（破産手続き中）の元社長で、業務上横領罪に問われた猿橋望被告（５８）（控訴中）を東京都内のホテルに監禁したとして、山口組系暴力団員の男（３８）ら２人が、監禁の疑いで警視庁三田署に現行犯逮捕されていたことがわかった。

同署幹部によると、２人は２８日午前１１時３０分頃から午後３時頃まで、中央区日本橋蛎殻町内のホテルの一室に猿橋被告を監禁した疑い。猿橋被告にけがはなかった。

猿橋被告の弁護士が、猿橋被告と２５日頃から会えなくなったとして同署に相談していた。捜査員が２８日午後３時頃、同ホテルで猿橋被告を保護し、２人を取り押さえた。２人は「一緒にいただけ」と容疑を否認している。同署はほかに共犯者がいるとみている。

猿橋被告は、ＮＯＶＡグループの社員積立金を流用したとして、２００８年６月に業務上横領容疑で大阪府警に逮捕され、先月、大阪地裁が懲役３年６月の実刑判決を言い渡していた。

(h/t to Are they the lemmings)

In Search of Answers

Shawn — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:18:46 +0000

Old news is fun! The Japan Times reports on Yano Research's survey on the foreign language learning market in Japan, which I wrote about this at the beginning of August and touched on again earlier this month. The only difference with today's article is that the JT spoke with somebody at GEOS.

Susumu Ikegami, a spokesman for Geos Corp., which runs English-language schools in Japan and other countries, said they have been facing a serious decline.

"As the number of students decreased, the number of classrooms also declined," said Ikegami, who declined to give the figure for the classrooms.

Ikegami said the market's downward trend began about five years ago, although the reason is hard to pinpoint. However, he pointed out that the bankruptcy of Nova Corp. in October 2007 had some impact.

It's amazing that Ikegami can't figure out why business is down. You can try and blame NOVA, Lehman Brothers, or swine flu, but you can only wring so much mileage out of those excuses. The article ends with this brilliant plan:

However, Ikegami of Geos said the overall outlook for the language-school market in Japan doesn't appear bright.

"We have 53 schools overseas, and they are doing pretty well. So, while there is the chance of growth from a global outlook, we don't really have a good picture for the Japanese market. Rather than getting more students, we are working to run the business more economically," Ikegami said.

Things don't look good down the road, so let's cut costs? That's it? The market has been sliding for years and GEOS is still at the cut costs/efficiency stage? The article is titled "Few answers for the language market." Is the problem about finding answers to the downturn or the dreadful way in which eikaiwa schools conduct business?

My guess is that it's the latter, with NOVA being the straw that broke the camel's back. All the schools really care about is putting bums in chairs and vacuuming their students' wallets, and NOVA was the poster child of this kind of behavior. METI's press release　describes it in vivid detail, from pressure sales to exaggerated advertising to underhanded refund practices to outright thievery and deception. Other schools have tried to blame its instructors for the failings of the company or sue them for exercising their right to strike.

But the bad behavior doesn't stop at eikaiwa. Dispatch teaching is just as bad. Not only does the job have no benefits, instructors are disposable employees that boards of education pick and choose from and discard at will. Although teaching English looks promising in elementary schools, it should not be forgotten that the potentially lucrative job scene hinges on school budgets. BOEs with no money are more likely to stick with a Japanese teacher than hire an ALT.

The homestay business is more of the same. Gateway21 tore a page from the NOVA playbook with 950 million yen vanishing into thin air as the end result.

To put it bluntly, the rot is extensive, and teachers and students know it. But if the Susumu Ikegamis of the business can't understand why business is bad, then there's not much hope for them. What's the answer that eikaiwas should be looking for? How about: Stop abusing your employees and ripping off your customers?

Nature at Work

Shawn — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:33:39 +0000

Remember back in June when when some flights in and out of Japan were delayed or re-routed due to a volcano erupting in the Kuril Islands?

That was the eruption of Sarychev Peak on Matua Island. You may have seen a picture of it, such as this one from Live Science:

Source: Live Science

The International Space Station also captured the eruption on video.

Wow.