rcaetano wrote:
> On Nov 7, 3:37 pm, The 2-Belo <the2b...@msd.bigREMOVETHISlobe.ne.jp>
> wrote:
>> Declan Murphy totally sneezed all over fj.life.in-japan with a withering cloud
>> of snot:
>>> On Nov 7, 10:01 am, CL <flot...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>> <snip>AEON is a part of AEON Group<snip>
>>>> AEON Engrish Skule is a tiny little part of all that.
>>> I don't know anything about the eikaiwa racket, but it never occured
>>> to me that AEON was part of AEON.
>> It's not. The names are identical in English, so it's probably a common
>> misconception. (The names in Japanese are different.)
> 
> I thought AEON was part of AEON too. In fact I recall a Japanese
> friend telling me that, and it made sense then (I'm pretty sure there
> was an AEON school at the local Jusco mall).

Good to know that others have seen AEON schools in AEON-owned malls. 
So, the people I know aren't the only ones calling Jusco about English 
lessons ...

> In any case, I'd assume business must be good for AEON  (the eikaiwa)
> now.

Not necessarily.  There is some huge percentage of people who prepaid 
for services that can't afford to go elsewhere until NOVA pays them 
back.  IIRC, the bulk of the Yen 43 billion NOVA has as outstanding debt 
are repayments for unfulfilled contracts.  Unpaid salaries were only 
around Yen 2 billion.  It was one of the reasons cited by the teachers' 
union for working out a teaching-for-food model, as well.

Several news reporters I know are working on human interest stories 
about poor families that saved up for years so that one child could go 
to eikaiwa in hopes of passing the college entrance exam, get a good job 
(or a government job), and pull the family out of its low economic 
level.  Seems as though those sort were the second most important sales 
target for NOVA after OLs.

-- 
CL