daffy wrote:

> I taught ESL in Japan from 1997 to 2000, and spent my first year
> working for AEON. I was stunned to hear of Nova's bankruptcy
> yesterday, because they were a monster during the years I was in
> Japan. I was wondering if anyone here could tell me how AEON has been
> doing, and if there's been any talk about how Nova's implosion might
> affect competitors like AEON?

Asking once would have been enough ...

But, since you did ask, the chances of AEON going under are somewhere 
between slim and none.  Unlike NOVA which was just a one-trick pony of 
an Engrish factory, AEON is a part of AEON Group which is something like 
equal in size to the Japanese government in employees, income, and 
number of buildings owned.  You may recognize various AEON Group names 
like Jusco, Carrefour, Mini Stop, Max Valu, or Kasumi from your time 
spent here.  AEON Engrish Skule is a tiny little part of all that.  And 
AEON management has this funny little habit of letting small things that 
don't make money or don't make a lot of money just keep chugging along 
if it creates more goodwill for the parent company than the loss hurts 
its bottom line.

-- 
CL