Article: No More Nova

Japan's largest English school chain, NOVA, has collapsed.

The chain, which offers mainly English classes, has more than 800 schools and 400,000 students across Japan. However, in June 2007, it was ordered to suspend part of its operations after a court ruled it had misled customers in advertisements about some services.

Since then, student enrolment has fallen sharply, and Nova has accumulated debts of up to ¥50 billion (£213 million €300 million). Its 2,000 Japanese staff members have not been paid since July, and some 4,000 non-Japanese instructors have not been paid their October salary.

Approximately 900 British nationals worked for Nova. The website for the British Embassy in Tokyo has a comprehensive list of local organisations where teachers can go for help, including city government offices specialising in labour advice for foreigners, though the embassy does note that “under the Japanese legal system, there are limits to [their] involvement." The website also mentions that some foreign teachers may be eligible for state employment benefits through the Hello Work Office. New Zealand's Japanese embassy, representing around 500 Nova teachers, issued similar advice. The Canadian foreign ministry estimates there are 668 Canadian Nova employees.

ELT organisations based in Japan have been inundated with ex-Nova teachers looking for work. “We have received a large number of calls and applications from ex-Nova teachers," commented a spokesperson from i-to-i, one of the newest organisations to supply English language teachers to Japan, “Luckily, we have been able to help many of them out."

Because the company's collapse was due to a specific incidence of malpractice on behalf of Nova, it has had no obvious impact on the ELT industry in Japan as a whole. The demand for English language learning is as high as ever.