Nova Corp. President Nozomu Sahashi on Thursday refused to resign from the top post at the largest English-language school operator in Japan over a scandal involving exaggerated advertisements.
His refusal came in response to a call for his resignation from Nova shareholders who asked him at their annual meeting to resign to take responsibility for the scandal, which has led to a government order partially suspending Nova’s business operations.

“If I resign, the company will collapse,” Sahashi told the meeting in Osaka.

Sahashi apologized for causing the disciplinary action by the government and said Nova has created a management reform committee to investigate the scandal and consider how best to avoid scandals in the future.

The committee, consisting of four experts on corporate compliance, will compile an interim report by the end of July and a final one by the end of August, he said.

The committee is expected to look into Sahashi’s responsibility and other issues related to the scandal.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070628/kyodo/d8q1pfhg3.html

Shortly before 9pm this evening our local at Credu inked a labor-management agreement (LMA) reinstating the local’s president. After three weeks of intense negotiations under steady threat of a business-busting strike, management gave in and reinstated Larnac with all back pay. The LMA also included a return to a better, earlier shift schedule for all three teachers.

The victory comes thanks to one factor: the solidarity of the three teachers. During talks, Lori and Marc threatened strike action if Larnac were not quickly reinstated. They also offered to take pay cuts in exchange for getting him back to work. Amazingly, the pay cuts were not in today’s agreement.

The branch has not even begun to negotiate its core late-shunto/founding demands. We expect management to continue to negotiate in good faith.

The slogan of high school sport associations could be: If you can’t beat ‘em, ban ‘em.

The associations have introduced tough restrictions on foreign students because they are trouncing the Japanese athletes in sports such as the ekiden relay marathon, basketball and table tennis.

The restrictions followed protests from Japanese fans who say the superior ability of the foreign students is making the sporting events dull.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200706290152.html

FUKUROI, Shizuoka Prefecture– Fearful that they would be inviting crime to their neighborhood, residents blocked an attempt by a Japanese-Brazilian man to buy land on which to build a house.

The local regional legal affairs bureau said their actions constituted a “violation of human rights” and told the parties involved that if a similar situation occurred in the future they should handle it better.

In the end, the man was forced to purchase property elsewhere.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200706290148.html

Nova Corp President Nozomu Sahashi on Thursday refused to resign from the top post at the largest English-language school operator in Japan over a scandal involving exaggerated advertisements. His refusal came in response to a call for his resignation from Nova shareholders who asked him at their annual meeting to resign to take responsibility for the scandal, which has led to a government order partially suspending Nova’s business operations. “If I resign, the company will collapse,” Sahashi told the meeting in Osaka.

Sahashi apologized for causing the disciplinary action by the government and said Nova has created a management reform committee to investigate the scandal and consider how best to avoid scandals in the future. The committee, consisting of four experts on corporate compliance, will compile an interim report by the end of July and a final one by the end of August, he said.

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/410876

Executives of scandal-tainted companies bowed deeply in remorse at shareholder meetings on Thursday as stockholders who are aggressively expanding their stakes in companies are gradually making their presence felt.

Nova Corp., the scandal-hit operator of the nation’s largest English-language school network, held its shareholder meeting in Osaka. The company was in the red in the business year ending in March for the second consecutive year.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry has suspended some of Nova’s business operations for its illegal business practices such as illegal contract cancellation procedures.

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070628p2a00m0na010000c.html

Nova Corp. in Osaka, the nation’s largest English school chain, won a public tender for an Osaka Municipal Board of Education program to dispatch assistant language teachers to municipal middle schools in spring 2006 with a price matching the closed ceiling price of 54,850,200 yen, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

A board official said the matching prices were purely coincidental. The board, however, plans to investigate whether information about the tender had been leaked, since the bids matched within a margin of only 100 yen.

The firm also won other public tenders for a similar program for primary schools with bids of 95 to 98 percent of the ceiling prices.

According to the board, three firms, including Nova, participated in public bidding to supply ALTs to 116 middle schools and other schools on March 17, 2006. However, the tender was unsuccessful as all three firms placed bids higher than the target price. The board conducted the second public tender, with a higher target price, the following month. Two firms, including Nova, which had participated in the first tender, and another firm placed bids, with Nova’s matching the ceiling price.

Public tenders for a similar program at 299 municipal primary schools were held by dividing the schools into three groups based on their location on March 17, 2006. Nova’s bid for one group–6.55 million yen, and 98 percent of the ceiling price–was successful, but there were no winning bids for the other two groups.

Nova won one of two tenders held on April 25 the same year, with a bid of 4.59 million yen, 95 percent of the ceiling price, while another firm won a tender for another group with a bid that was 83 percent of the ceiling price.

The board official told a Yomiuri Shimbun reporter that contracts for the programs had to be made quickly because the new term had already begun, but denied the possibility of the leak.

The official also insisted the results of the tenders were coincidental, saying: “If the information of the closed planned price had leaked, would Nova have matched the contract price [down to the hundreds of yen] as doing so was sure to raise questions?”

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070622TDY02007.htm