Japan News Today

GEOS has decided to offer the students left in the lurch by the Geos Australia closures free lessons in Japan!

This is worthless! The majority of the population can’t speak English here!

According to Lets Japan, “if you had a contract with GEOS Australia slated to start from February 2, 2010 or had made an application before January 29, GEOS will offer you 6 months of “Active lessons” at at any GEOS school in Japan at no charge. Students wishing to accept the offer have to provide GEOS with their details no later than December 29, 2010.

Flying to Japan is expensive, living in Japan is expensive, nobody can speak English here.

Nobody from Australia is going to accept this offer.

Instead of a refund for the screwed over students Geos has decided to offer them…      Nothing!

Found an interesting article about how the US government’s stake in GM and Chrysler creates a conflict of interest with anything they do with regards to how they manage the Toyota brake pedal fiasco.

“The optics are terrible because — and this is what happens when a government owns a company - the two companies that are going to gain the most out of this are General Motors and Chrysler,” said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland’s business school.

Sounds like transportation secretary Ray Lahood is not doing much to help and his comments are causing confusion and harm more than anything

According to the article, Lahood also caused a brief panic when he told a congressional panel that owners of 5.3 million Toyota vehicles affected by the recalls should “stop driving” them. Later Lahood toned down his remarks, telling reporters: “What I meant to say and what I thought I said was if you own one of these cars or if you’re in doubt, take it to the dealer and they’re going to fix it.”

The article balances out the theory the US wants Toyota to struggle because Toyota is a large player in the US economy

Weston Konishi, an expert on Japan at the Mansfield Foundation think-tank, said he doubted either Washington or Tokyo wanted the Toyota flap to escalate.”Toyota is now a real stakeholder in the US economy — think of its auto plants and jobs — so trying to score points against it would be somewhat self-defeating,” he added.

Either way Japanese corporate culture is so slow moving, and cover up happy, Toyota probably tried to cover up the problems first. When the cover up failed they botched the recall.

In an ironic twist a Czech man avoided being potentially shut out of his son’s life forever by his estranged Japanese wife. He did it by kidnapping his son and taking him out of Japan. Typically it’s the other way around a native Japanese who has a falling out with their spouse takes the kids and shuts out the other parent completely. When the shut out parent is not Japanese they are particularly screwed because the Japanese parent quietly takes the kid back to Japan without permission and the foreigner has no practical options for getting the kid back. This link leads to many personal accounts of foreigner parents being shut out of their childs lives by a former Japanese spouse.

A case that made the news recently is the Christopher Savoie case. Christopher Savoie’s former wife Noriko Savoie knew Japan does not recognize family court orders from the United States and deliberately kidnapped the kids taking them back to Japan. There are many documented cases of this type of behavior and a whole website dedicated to the issue called JCRN - Japan Children’s Rights Network. A video of the story can be seen by following the NewsChannel5.com link. The Christoper Savoie case is different because he actually went back to Japan to try and get his kids back but instead got thrown in a Japanese jail as the United States embassy refused to open their doors to him as he begged for help at their door way with his kids in his arms.

The title of the Yomiuri article is “WHEN FAMILIES BREAK UP / Parents helpless if kids spirited abroad”. Ironic isn’t it? Japan playing the victim again. What the Czech man did is avoid the Japanese system which would have been stacked against him, why play by their rules when they aren’t fair?

Below is a comment left by a screwed over former GEOS Australia employee. It’s a cautionary tale.

Hi to all in Japan. As a “now unemployed” staff member of GEOS {St. Marks Perth } my comments may be seen to be emotional, however I need to bring to your attention the collapse of the GEOS colleges in Australia. The Japanese parent company, through it’s owner and director, Mr. TSUNEO KUSUNOKI and his team of bandits have “allegedly ” stripped or siphoned off, millions of dollars in profits and trust accounts to subsidize the Japanese network of GEOS schools. The pathetic apology and denial of corporate responsibility by Mr. KUSUNOKI is a possible indication of the gravity of the situation for other GEOS international colleges, and also the domestic network. I stongly advise all employees of GEOS to immediately initiate a “plan B ” contingency plan for sudden closures. My own experience is that this company will NOT give you any advance warning. I personally have been left dependant on family support to survive. The closure of the GEOS colleges in Australia has created chaos for thousands of students and hundreds of staff. The Japanese parent company is possibly derelict in it’s duty to students and staff and should acknowledge the considerable pain and damage to reputation in Australia. In closing, I wish to thank all of my GEOS colleagues, and sincerely hope that Mr. Kusunoki and his cohorts end up on a park bench feeding the pidgeons.

This is a photo of some underwhelming fireworks that were taken at the Cosmo Clock ferris wheel in Yokohama.

Eight GEOS schools in Australia have suddenly closed their doors and entered Voluntary Administration. Screwed over teachers and students at the GEOS Sydney campus were greeted with a sign on the Window stating, “Unfortunately GEOS Australia will be closed from Monday 1st February until further notice. As soon as we have more information regarding the future of the school you will be contacted by person.”

A screwed over teacher stated her displeasure, “It is going to be really difficult for people like me who only have $20 in the bank because I will have to find another job quickly,” she said.

For an interesting read go through the comments of this posting on Lets Japan. It’s loaded with comments from former teachers/employees of GEOS. A common theme is the money from the Australia campuses was keeping GEOS afloat overall. Another common theme is all people working at GEOS should get out NOW.