ABC

From Eikaiwa Wiki

ABC Language School filed for bankruptcy on Monday, July 23, 2007. The operating company of ABC had closed the school suddenly at the end of June saying the reason was to complete remodeling and it would reopen classrooms in the middle of July. ABC was an Osaka-based English school headed by president Isao Nakamura. At the time when it closed down the company had liabilities totaling 100 million yen. Lesson fees that should have been repaid to students was approximately 30 million yen, and unpaid salaries for teachers and other employees was about 15 million yen. The company ran four schools in Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, with about 800 students. The school marketed itself as having affordable one-on-one lessons, but it faced a shortage in operating funds after investing heavily to increase lesson rooms and advertising. The bankruptcy trustee is Katsuyuki Mitsu. By the time it was ready to close, ABC had been using French, Spanish, German natives to teach English. ABC continued to sell lessons until the last day of operation, a universally condemned habit of English schools about to fail. Some of the former students setup an ABC "victim group" at this website:[1]

Contents 1 Media & articles pertaining to the bankruptcy 2 Analysis of the bankruptcy 3 Reports of the bankruptcy 4 Services 5 Employment 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Media & articles pertaining to the bankruptcy

• http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/07/27/tpr-news-07-27-07-elections-business-kyoto-protocol/
• http://www.webcitation.org/5RKNxJl4x
• http://www.webcitation.org/5RKO1CV7G
• http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070724a7.html
• http://www.webcitation.org/5SPsLjw0n
• http://www.letsjapan.org/?q=abc-language-school-shuts-its-doors.html

[edit] Analysis of the bankruptcy

the president of ABC said that sales plummeted the day after Nova was punished [by METI] and that he would cooperate in refunding lessons and paying the teachers. ABC apparently has debts of approximately 28 million yen.^[1]A separate article in the Yomiuri Shimbun illustrates the suddenness of the closure. On June 29, the day ABC closed its doors, a student transferred 150,000 yen to the Kobe school that morning after being told by the president of ABC to send the money by the next day since 'they were in the middle of a campaign'. NCB isn't unique selling contracts on the day before they went under. Eikiawa in financial crisis are prone to extremely desperate measures. In some regard it says a lot about why they're going under in the first place: a disregard for customers that borders on contempt. One teacher who interviewed at NCB 3 months ago before it went bankrupt observed: "they had all these plans to move into the maru biru just across the street which mustve been costing a fair whack. 1 whole floor."

[edit] Reports of the bankruptcy

A group of students has organized in Osaka to prepare a lawsuit saying that ABC was soliciting contracts even though its business was on the brink of collapse. Approximately 130 students, who paid hundreds of thousands of yen for lessons, organized a meeting held on the 16th in which their representative explained that ABC was intending to file for bankruptcy. The group is planning to sue ABC for fraud based on the complaints of 5 students who purchased lessons just before the school suddenly shut its doors. The "ABC Victims Group" (higaisha no kai) can be found at http://roo.to/abc-higaisha/

[edit] Services

ABC's selling point was its private lessons at the deeply discouted price of 1,990 yen for a 50 minute class.

[edit] Employment

ABC had about 80 - 100 teachers and roughly 1000 students. Teachers were paid 1250 an hour before tax and max 500 yen travel per day.

[edit] References

[edit] External links