CrazyGaijin.Com's » english

Former Nova Boss Sent to the Can … Finally!

crazygaijin — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:07:47 +0000

Well it’s finally official. If you ask me it took a bit too long to get there, but Nozum’s finally going to jail for his embezzelment. Let’s face it, this guy is a shameful crook. I personally know of former Nova students who lost hundreds of thousands of yen in prepaid lesson fees when Nova went bankrupt. Not to mention the non-Japanese teachers and Japanese staff that weren’t paid (some of the Japanese staff lost close to 3 months of pay). The text of the original story is below -

Ex-Nova boss handed prison sentence for embezzling from workers’ fund

OSAKA — The Osaka District Court on Wednesday sentenced the former president of collapsed English language school operator Nova, who went on trial facing charges of embezzling money from an employees’ fund, to three years, six months behind bars.

Handed the sentence was former company president Nozomu Sahashi, 57. According to the ruling, Sahashi transferred 320 million yen from the savings account of a mutual aid organization of Nova employees into a separate account. He then exchanged the amount for a check and deposited the money into the account of related company Nova Kikaku, thereby embezzling the funds, the ruling said.

During his trial Sahashi had admitted to the facts of the case, but said he had not been under the perception that he was forbidden from using the money. Lawyers for Sahashi argued that he was innocent, saying that he had no intention of illegally misappropriating the money, and that his actions did not constitute professional embezzlement.

On Aug. 19, Nova’s bankruptcy administrator filed a lawsuit in the Osaka District Court seeking about 2.136 billion yen in damages, saying that Sahashi repeatedly made unnecessary transactions, resulting in losses. It also filed a criminal complaint against Sahashi with the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, accusing him of aggravated breach of trust.

Sahashi founded Nova’s predecessor, Nova Kikaku, in 1981. At one time the company operated about 1,000 schools across Japan, but its business performance worsened due to trouble relating to terminated contracts, and the company collapsed in October 2007. Some 300,000 students were unable to receive back money for lessons that they had paid in advance. Altogether, Nova’s debts reached about 86 billion yen. Sahashi was arrested in June last year. He was released after paying bail of 50 million yen the following month.

Chapter Three – in which CrazyGaijin spots a bottle of “Whishy”.

crazygaijin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:18:23 +0000

Call it what you will, Janglish, Japanese English, Japlish, Japanican, Japanic, it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that sometimes Japanese signs written in English Roomaji (as opposed to Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana) contain spelling mistakes, which can ultimately change the entire meaning of the sign and can be downright funny at times. Case-in-point, I spyed this sign as I was tooling around on my bicycle today. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I’d need to have downed a few glasses on the rocks before I started referring to it Whishy!!

I’ll keep everyone updated with additional humerous Janglish signs as I find them.

Chapter Two – in which the CrazyGaijin wakes up at the bottom of the rabbit hole.

crazygaijin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:07:51 +0000

Last night we got rocked with a 2-stage earthquake that had me hustlin licketysplit down the 5 flights of stairs at my Danchi doing the Texas Two Step. I had hung around in my apartment for the first go-around but then after about 5 seconds of no movement the second Act started a lot stronger than the first and I decided I wasn’t hanging around for it. Apparently the USGS ranked it a 7.1. If you would like to check it out you can go here-

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/09/japan.earthquake/

In 4 and a half years I’ve been through a number of quakes, but last night’s was the first that actually sent me hi-tailing it outta the building. Anyway, I eventually got to sleep only to be woken up by the rain … the wonderful sound of torrential typhoon strength rain beating down on the rooftop of my Danchi and waking me up at 5 in the morning. They (being the Japanese meteorologists) say that we’re officially finished with the rainy season, but the CrazyGaijin says “wrong boys it doesn’t seem to have stopped yet!” Hmm, maybe I’ll see if I can get those nice fellas over at NHK weather to hook me up with a part-time gig playing tarot card weather forecasting.

I eventually ventured outside between the intermittent downpours to make my way to work. On the way I saw another one of those mini-cars I’ve been seeing so much of lately. Swiftly grabbing my camera I documented the moment for all. Check it out.

Now, exactly how many clowns do you think could

fit into that thing?

Chapter One – in which Crazy Gaijin tumbles down the rabbit hole.

crazygaijin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:35:07 +0000

Ok, so this is officially my 1st post to this new blogsite CRAZYGAIJIN.COM. Guess I should tell a little about myself. Was working back in the good ‘ol US of A and ran into a close friend of mine that had just returned from Japan. After listening to his stories of Japan (and after imbibing a few beers) I decided to take a break from my law career, throw caution to the wind and book a one-way ticket to Japan (that ought to explain the CRAZY part, and the GAIJIN part should be obvious, you know … a foreigner living in Japan).

I arrived at Narita Airport on June 2, 2005 (the beginning of the dreaded rainy season), made my way by rickshaw to the tawdry, ramshackle old fishing village outside of Yokohama, to which I still call home. Yes, it is now 2009, and yes I’m sure that you’re wondering “what, o, what has that Crazy Gaijin been up to for the last 4 plus years, and why has he decided to start writing now?”

That’s a twofold question which of course requires a twofold answer. I’ve been up to all sorts of tomfoolery and hijinks over the last 4 plus years. Perhaps someday I will delve into and regale you with those tales, but I have just, at this very instant, made the monumental decision (here’s the second fold) NOT to go backwards to tell this tale. No, I would much rather make this forward looking as opposed to retrospective.

I will leave you there then … on the doorstep looking in as it were, as the Crazy Gaijin tumbles down the rabbit hole and awakens 4 and a half years later to begin his journey and to tell his tale.