How I learned to Stop Worring and Love Nova

view my full blog at http://adelleM.wordpress.com

I’ve been asked by a number of people recently how things have turned out with Nova and getting my paycheck. Well, I won’t know anything for sure until October 15, but here is what I have recently learned:

This past Saturday I had lunch with one of my private students. She’s works for an international company and is a reliable source of business news. We talked about Nova for a little bit, and I mentioned that the day before Nova had to submit a report to JASDAQ (the Japanese NASDAQ) but as of Saturday afternoon I didn’t know how it had been received. She told me about something that came out in the Japanese press, (maybe the business press) but that I hadn’t been able to find in English. Apparently the government (presumably METI, the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry) basically told Nova to get it’s act together. It gave Nova these priorities: pay Japanese staff, pay customers refunds, then pay foreign teachers.

I got so angry when I heard that, and it still makes me angry. Pay foreign teachers last?! Without the teachers there is no product, no Nova. And if you don’t pay teachers and they walk out, well then you’re going to have more students cancel and you won’t be able to pay anybody!! Furthermore, neither the company nor METI should differentiate between employees like that. Either customers should come first or employees should. It’s wrong to disrespect and penalize foreign teachers in this way.

Nova’s still in hot water, and it seems close to boiling. According to a post from the Let’s Japan blog Nova’s president, Nozomu Sahashi, “just mortgaged the future of the company for 70 million yen.” And this money is not enough to cover the billions of yen the company needs to pay teachers. Here are two posts that provide more information about the current situation:
Nova All Out of Options at Let’s Japan.org
Nova Checkmated? at Japan Economy News & Blog
And coverage in the Japanese news:
Nova raises 70 million yen issuing share warrants in the Japan Times
Nova struggling to pay refunds, wages in the Daily Yomiuri

As of my last post my two most immediate options seemed to be to see a lawyer and go to a ‘bankruptcy watch consultation’ meeting offered by the Tokyo Nambu branch of the (Nova) General Union. I decided not to see the lawyer. The consultation would have been expensive, and I just wasn’t convinced that the laywer could provide more/different information to me that could warrant the price. I had planned on going to the union meeting, but honestly I just couldn’t wake up early enough to get out to Shimbashi on time. I kept pressing to snooze button and when I finally woke up it was after the meeting began.

Some people have asked me if I’m glad I came to Japan, or if I was happy to work for Nova. Yes and yes. I wouldn’t have done anything differently. After I graduated from college I wanted to experience a new environment and make money, and working for Nova allowed me to do both. It was a great opportunity to live in Japan. I got to live in Tokyo - for a year! I had a good job, met so many GREAT people, and had a year full of incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I learned early on that Nova, which some people say stands for NO VAcation, didn’t treat its employees well. Nova was out for Nova and you had to be out for you. The company had an almost unending supply of teachers and that was apparent in the way they treated their employees. It bothered me sometimes, but I signed the contract and both sides stuck to it. I signed away my right to sick days, government holidays and a number of other things, but at the end of the day I had a good job and a good one in Tokyo at that.

There are a lot of companies that mis-treat employees, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a formula for late- or non-payment of employees and possible bankruptcy. Without seeing the bigger picture - which, due to the language barrier and general lack of transparency was difficult - how could it be predicted?

The fact that I still have a Japanese bank account greatly increases the chance that I’ll see my last monthly paycheck from Nova, but at this point I’ve more or less resigned myself to the idea that I might not get paid. It was hard, because it goes against everything that I, and most people in the world have been taught. The only guaranteed way to make money is to have a job, right? It’s not like Nova teachers are out playing the stock market or buying and selling real estate. They’re putting in real time and labor. Since when does that not equal payment? What culture, religion or proverb does not teach its children that working hard is the way to succeed? Nova and METI would have you believe that your labor means nothing, especially if you’re a foreigner.