Thursday, June 21, 2007
No news is good news
The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry said Wednesday it ordered N Corp., the nation's largest English language school chain, to suspend for six months its recruitment of customers for new contracts of more than one year or 70 lesson hours, starting Thursday.
According to sources, the ministry has concluded N's practice of telling prospective customers they can reserve classes at any time they choose, even though classes at certain times on some days are difficult to book, constitutes giving a "false account" of the company's services and violates the Specified Commercial Transaction Law.
The Yomiuri Shinbun
***
Just recently, amongst the various fyis, faqs and not-quite apologies that have been available for students on the front desk, there has also been a booklet of press clippings about the company, dating way back.
I purloined one for Japanese reading practice. It wasn't particularly racy stuff: just drivel about speech contests and whatnot.
If they made one from this year's press clippings it would be awesome. The company's name has popped up in the press innumerable times and the only occasion when it wasn't linked to some kind of wrongdoing was when it was about the teacher who was murdered in Chiba prefecture.
***
Edit: Having finished the above post, I logged on to the Yomiuri. Lo and behold, what did I find?
N 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.
Can't we go 10 minutes without some kind of scandal? 10 minutes? Is that too much to ask?
According to sources, the ministry has concluded N's practice of telling prospective customers they can reserve classes at any time they choose, even though classes at certain times on some days are difficult to book, constitutes giving a "false account" of the company's services and violates the Specified Commercial Transaction Law.
The Yomiuri Shinbun
***
Just recently, amongst the various fyis, faqs and not-quite apologies that have been available for students on the front desk, there has also been a booklet of press clippings about the company, dating way back.
I purloined one for Japanese reading practice. It wasn't particularly racy stuff: just drivel about speech contests and whatnot.
If they made one from this year's press clippings it would be awesome. The company's name has popped up in the press innumerable times and the only occasion when it wasn't linked to some kind of wrongdoing was when it was about the teacher who was murdered in Chiba prefecture.
***
Edit: Having finished the above post, I logged on to the Yomiuri. Lo and behold, what did I find?
N 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.
Can't we go 10 minutes without some kind of scandal? 10 minutes? Is that too much to ask?
