Japan Ichiban! Number One!

3.5 year prison sentence just handed down.

Justice is served.

The damage to the industry as a whole though will never be returned. English schools all over Japan have been effected and enrollments are lower at most schools each year.

OSAKA, Aug. 26 (AP) – (Kyodo)—The founder and former president of English conversation school operator Nova Corp., Nozomu Sahashi, was sentenced Wednesday to three years and six months in prison without suspension for embezzling 320 million yen in Nova’s employment benefit funds.The Osaka District Court rejected the claim by the 57-year-old that he is not guilty or should receive a suspended sentence as he had no intention to gain profits unlawfully. Prosecutors had asked for a five-year prison term.

The ruling said Sahashi embezzled the accumulated employment benefit fund by transferring it to a bank account of a Nova subsidiary on July 20, 2007.

Sahashi admitted during trial proceedings that he used the money to reimburse language lesson fees people paid before terminating their contracts.

Aside from the criminal case, Sahashi faces several lawsuits that have been filed by employees who lost their jobs without receiving salaries, and students who got no refunds since Nova went bust in October 2007.

In the latest case, a bankruptcy administrator filed a damages suit on Aug. 19, seeking 2.1 billion yen in compensation for breach of trust, claiming Sahashi purchased equipment used for remote English lesson services against Nova’s business plan.

Some of Nova’s business operations were taken over by Nagoya-based G.communication Co. in the month following its bankruptcy.

Sahashi launched English conversation classes in Osaka in 1981 and set up Nova in 1990.

His venture once grew into Japan’s largest chain of English schools, with some 480,000 people taking language lessons at its peak, before going bankrupt.

Asahi News Today:

経営破綻（はたん）した英会話学校「ＮＯＶＡ」（大阪市、破産手続き中）の社員らの積立金３億２千万円を受講生への返還金に流用したとして、業務上横領の罪に問われた元社長猿橋望（さはし・のぞむ）被告（５７）に対し、大阪地裁は２６日、懲役３年６カ月（求刑懲役５年）の判決を言い渡した。樋口裕晃裁判長は「社員の福利厚生の資金を目的外に使い、経営の行き詰まりを切り抜けようとした犯行に酌量すべき点は見いだしがたい」と述べ、被告・弁護側の無罪主張を退けた。

判決によると、猿橋元社長は０７年７月、自らが会長を務めていた社員らの互助組織「社友会」の銀行口座にあった３億２千万円を、元社長が実質支配していた関連会社「ノヴァ企画」の口座に無断で移して横領。中途解約した受講生約２９００人に対する返還金の一部にあてた。

猿橋元社長は０７年１０月、経営悪化の責任などを問われ、臨時取締役会で社長を解任された。同社は会社更生法の適用を申請した後、破産手続きに移行している。

In June 2008 police also announced they were investigating Sahashi for possible embezzlement in the course of business for his ordering the transfer of the entire balance of a separately managed employee fund to a Nova business account to allow the payment of refunds to students. Sahashi, who owned the affiliate firm that handled the money transfer, did so in July 2007 to cover operating costs without the approval of employees. Nova employees had made monthly contributions from their pay to fund a mutual aid organization that covered the costs of business trips and occasions of congratulations or condolence. Rarely used, it had an accumulated balance of 300 million yen at the time of the transfer.^[11]

On the same day that investigators raided Nova Kikaku’s former headquarters,

While Sahashi acknowledged that the fund was under his control he denied any wrongdoing and on July 30,2008 he announced his intention to plead “not guilty.” Murata, reputed to be Sahashi’s right-hand man, reportedly admitted to allegations of embezzlement in the conduct of business. On August 25, 2009 Sahashi was found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to three and a half years of imprisonment

More from the Mainichi Newspaper:

ＮＯＶＡ破綻：猿橋元社長に懲役３年６月　大阪地裁判決

This one was right below me. There were two waves, the first slow and the second a lot stronger. The fish tank was swishing and the book shelves were swaying.

TOKYO (AP) —A strong earthquake shook the Japanese capital and surrounding areas Sunday, the JapanMeteorological Agency said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the temblor, which rattled furniture and walls in Tokyo homes at 7:56 p.m. (1056 GMT) Sunday, the agency said.

The Japanese agency recorded the quake at a preliminary magnitude of 6.9. The United States Geological Survey said the quake was magnitude 7.1 and that it was centered in the Izu Islands some 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo.

The Japanese agency said there was no danger of tsunami from the quake. It was 1,115 feet (340 meters) below the ocean bed in the waters off the eastern coast of Japan, according to the agency.

The agency said the quake shook Tokyo, as well as the prefectures (states) of Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba and others around the capital.

Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries.

Noriko Sakai (酒井法子, Sakai Noriko; born February 14, 1971) is a J-pop singer and actress. She was born in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. She is married (1998), and has one son (1999). She is particularly popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Sakai released her debut single, “Otoko no Ko ni Naritai” (男のコになりたい, I Want to Be a Boy) on February 5, 1987, nine days short of her sixteenth birthday. Over 40,000 copies of the single were sold. In the early years of her career, she used the nickname NORI-P (のりピー), although around the mid-1990′s she started to distance herself from it

TOKYO, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) — Japanese police have obtained a warrant for the arrest of missing actress Noriko Sakai on suspicion of violation of the stimulant drugs control act, local media reported Friday.

The arrest warrant came following the detention of her husband Yuichi Takaso over drug possession earlier this week.

Sakai, 38, who made her debut in 1986 in a TV drama, was popular in Asia in the 1990s.

Her husband Takaso, 41, was arrested Monday after the police found a plastic bag containing stimulant drugs in his underwear in Tokyo’s Shibuya district.

Sakai, who was then summoned by the police for further investigation, refused to come to a police station and went missing with her 10-year-old son.

Her son was found safe Thursday in Tokyo at an acquaintance’s home, but radio signals from her cellphone in Yamanashi Prefecture disappeared Tuesday evening.