A couple of weeks ago one of the big English conversation schools in Japan went bust, and left almost 5000 foreigners in Japan without a job, and in some cases without a home. This has created a big stir in Japan, with very public examinations of what went wrong and what to do with all these suddenly unemployed foreigners.
Actually Nova, ECC and AEON hire quite a few foreigners, paying very little and relying on the exotic teaching environment to draw teachers. Most have little teaching experience (like me when I first arrived on JET) and live in apartments that are sponsored by the school. 90% of the ones that I have met lived paycheck to paycheck, spending most of their money on things in Japan, knowing this is a temporary adventure. I’ve never really wanted to work in a place like that, mainly because it is less about teaching and more about selling lessons. You build a teaching relationship with your students and then you turn the screws on them and try to get them to buy some special lesson package of the month.
So imagine arriving in Japan, getting started at your new job at Nova, and then the company dies. Your landlord wants money that you don’t have, your visa is now without a sponsor and can’t be extended without an employer, and you are stuck in a country where you can’t speak the language and have very little cash to survive. This is apparently a common situation right now for a lot of people.
Some foreign governments have stepped in to help their citizens – Australia and England have offered to subsidize in part flights back home for people out of work. The government of Japan is struggling to move quickly (something it is not really known for) and take advantage of all this suddenly available English language talent out there.
Everywhere you walk you see the bright blue Nova signs. At almost every major train station in Japan there is a Nova nearby, and it only serves to remind you that there are a lot of people out of work right now.
