☆ENGLISH ONLY☆コミュのgoing to court in Japan

I'm taking one Japanese guy to court, the same as what you wanna do.
I think you need a very good to excellent Japanese language skill to deal with those documents. You should find some Japanese guy as a language assistance.
Before actually filling the documents, you should discuss your situation with lawyers. You may find free law consultation and get some useful advice.
Some things you should consider carefully:
- Your reasons. Notice: The company may have its reasons also. Who can tell that you will win? The loser will pay the court fee. Be careful!
- How much do you want the company pay you if you win. The court fee depends on the required money. Contact the court's office for details. Considering how much you may pay for your lawyer, it may happen that you'll get nothing, even lose.
- The court may last for several months, over a year if needed.

Send me a message if you need more explanation. Good luck!

I don't know Japanese law but if there is any similarity to Australian
law, before going to court you would send a letter of demand. If they
ignore it you send them a second letter of demand. If they ignore
that you can summons them to appear in court.
Even if you have no intention of going through with it, the summons
will often scare people into either paying or negotiating. Is the company
still trading? If not you should be aware that secured creditors get
their money first and what's left, if anything is divided up amongst
all the other creditors of which you are one.
Court may be an expensive but futile effort. If you lawyer up they
will take a significant share of any judgment in your favor. That's
fine if you have costs awarded but it's not guaranteed. If you lose
you may have costs awarded against you, and it's a very real
possibility, especially if the contract was prepared by the company.
Anyway, I suggest you start with things that don't cost much money,
like letters of demand and paying to have a summons served. If
that doesn't work, well, if it was me I'd walk. Some fights even if you
win, you lose.

Talk to the General Union. Those guys know more about the problems foreigners have with Japanese companies. They'll help you sort things out on what you can and or cant do. Also, they are incredibly fast at responding.

Very helpful guys. They may press you to join their union or spread the word, which doesnt hurt.

www.generalunion.org

-V

Hi ! I really appreciate everyone's advice !

Total waste of time. This kind of thing happens. Move on.

http://www.generalunion.org/
I am one of the scattered survivors of the Nova blowup two years ago. Trust me: "schools" go under all the time here, and as you're just the hired help, I guarantee you'll be the last one to find out. I was lucky because of the enormous scale of the bankruptcy; however, that's just life here, sorry to say. First move: contact the GU at the site above. As was indicated earlier, send a registered letter to your employer and ask them what is going on, and demand your salary. . .some might say this is a waste of money, but if you are considering the legal route, you will have to prove at a minimum that a) there was a letter of demand, b) said letter was delivered, and c) I would strongly recommend having that letter in English and Japanese so they can't claim they didn't understand English. And if things go south and you aim on staying in Japan, be sure to find out how to tap into your employment insurance and contact Hello Work.

Thanks for the advice and information. My strategy was to find out what's going on, find out thesituation (yes, I contacted NUGW!) and find out about my rights...
Regrettably, my big issue is not owed money but breech of contract.
Its now September and I have two huge holes in my schedule and I turned down a load of jobs after I signed that contract, so really, the damage is serious.
I'm going to put the energy into looking to fill the hours and I've notified some companies I workfor about the bankrupt company's clients, so maybe they'll try to take over the classes.
Regrettably, its the best I can do.
But this really sucks... I left one company because the pay checks were coming late, but at least they were paying me and giving me classes.
Jeez...

You know, I sympathize with your situation, but as someone who has been involved in lawsuits and who is in the business world, I am going to just flatly tell you that you are wasting your time by trying to pursue any kind of legal option. You most likely will not win any kind of judgment, and, even if you do, good luck trying to collect from a business that no longer exists. Furthermore, you don't have any actual damages here. Only potential losses, which are difficult to prove and nearly impossible to quantify. And, on top of that, not to be cruel, but in the grand scheme of things your claim is really small peanuts. I know it's a big deal to you, and, it sucks, but, in short, no one cares.

You would be better served by focusing your efforts on making money right now and setting things up for yourself so that you are not at the mercy of unscrupulous employers in the future. I know everyone wants to stick it to the man, but, at the end of the day it is often a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Good luck.

mmmm lovely game of where's the tort, hey?
if they are in breech, why not just start thinking of just tearing up the contract, or...?

You would be better served by focusing your efforts on making money right now and setting things up for yourself so that you are not at the mercy of unscrupulous employers in the future. >>

Unfortunately, I agree 100% with you.

According to the NUGW there are ways I could go after the money, but suing a person who's filed for bankruptcy is obviously like milking water from a stone. And yeah... I'm not going to take a loss just to make a social statement

Its ashame... I actually stopped teaching for many years because I was sick of shit like this, then I went back and thought I'd avoid the ekaiwas and stick to company classes and better established schools in hopes of avoiding shit like this... Not only did I get screwed big time, but turns out just about every teach I know who's been teaching long term in Japan has had it happen at least once... Its gotten to the point that every time I go to conjugate a verb, I get anal pains...

have to agree with jack here, are you considering litigation because your are pissed at them? or because you have no alternative teaching/revenue/work options? Take the emotion out and re-think it.

If you want a positive spin on it then, consider it an expensive lesson to checkup on the company you are dealing with before signing the contract, as your not going to make that mistake again.

Well, they delayed the starting date of both classes twice, so I lost two weeks of work...
(according to the contract delayed classes are tacked on at the end of the course.)
Also they closed 8/27 but I wasn't told they were closed until a few days ago...
so I didn't work the first week of September (I actually waited in the rain for the coordinator on one day.)
And... during that time I turned down two job offers... plus I had to come in for a second needless orientation....
Personal damages are real... but realistically speaking, I realize that its a lost cause, though I will see a free attorney just to make sure.

well....no offense, but use this as a learning opportunity for how to consider contracts in the future. if nothing else, you should be writing in clauses into your next work contract, and if they are like, why are you doing this? just say, you want to make sure everything is clear. contracts are meetings of the minds; unfortunately here in japan, contracts are so loose that the employers wriggle free. and if nothing else, you can ensure a legal remedy for breech, etc. is in place within the contract itself.

Very unlikely that it will be worth the effort but you should go for it anyway if you are in the right.

well....no offense, but use this as a learning opportunity for how to consider contracts in the future.＞＞　Well, the law is clear... if a company shuts down and is unable to operate, the contract is void... My issue with the company is that they did not notify me when they closed (or that they were closing), so it incurred expenses upon myself. (According to legal advice I received, its a legitimate point, but even if the judge ruled in my favor, the odds of actually getting the money would be nil, since I'd be the last to be paid - - The big issue is under law whether they had a responsibility to cancel the contract. not the terms of the contract itself.

Whatever, I now feel bad... when I closed my business (a few years ago) I didn't know that I could have just run away... instead, I did the dumb thing, and paid my staff and let all people I dealt with know where to contact me if anything needed to be squared of... and I also made sure to walk away while I still had the money I needed to meet ALL my responsibilities.
I should have done what everyone else does... run away, get a lawyer and screw everyone I dealt with....

Yes, unfortunately, that's how this kind of thing goes. I've personally been screwed out of a lot of money over the years. There are very few of us who are honest enough to do the right thing rather than do what benefits us most. It's good that you are one of those people. Maybe you don't believe in God, or Karma, or The Universe or whatever, but I believe we all get paid back eventually.

But, honestly, you never know the real situation. Maybe the owner of that school had a medical emergency in his family that bled his funds dry? Maybe he sunk his entire life savings into the place and it didn't work out and now not only is he broke, but in major debt! He could be in need of mercy himself.

In any case, I guess this topic is done. All we can all do is live life the best we can and hope things go well.

Try to solve things with the people privately and don't waste your time trying to involve the authorities. It won't do you any good. I don't know where you are from but things in Japan are quite different from Western countries. People don't sue everyone for every small shit.

...Assuming, of course, that the authorities here would take and try seriously a case that involves a foreigner vs. a Japanese business owner.
<rant> As for the "every small shit" comment: true, perhaps people in English-speaking nations are a little sue-crazy at times; however, this does have a tendency of keeping people on their toes. In Japan, I believe the prevailant attitude and assumption is to expect complacency from workers and subordinates. Much of the population here seems quite whipped- -and from where I stand, it seems the only people who really get involved in serious action against what they deem injust are the farmers. As for English schools going under and the like: let's face it, those owners are worried first about protecting the legal rights of the Japanese staff (who would ostensibly know more about their legal rights- -whether or not they act on said knowledge); foreigners are expendable, replaceable, and such business owners know that we'll winge and gnash our teeth for a bit, but eventually move on. There's absolutely no incentive for things to change, either.
I humbly submit that business owners being held accountable for their actions through means of lawsuit would serve as fantastic dissuasion against treating people as chattel.
</rant>

Maybe if you try to resolve things with this company privately you will be more likely to receive a satisfactory outcome.... Calling in the lawyers and going to court can often further damage the relationship and make both parties more unsatisfied. If it is unlikely to bring you monetary compensation, taking legal action will be a waste of your time, money and emotions.

The way the company acted was very wrong, and it must be extremely upsetting for you. Understandably, you want an apology and a proper acknowledgement of the wrongdoing. However, it may be easier to cut your losses and put your energy into finding another job, rather than getting into an unpleasant and lengthy process that will cause you a lot of stress.

I hope you find a great new job soon with a good company

I humbly submit that business owners being held accountable for their actions through means of lawsuit would serve as fantastic dissuasion against treating people as chattel. >>

That's the problem, the owner and the entire staff simply disappeared and are unreachable - - otherwise I would have tried to negotiate with them directly (as others have suggested.)

The problem is that DIPSHITS like that have two things going for them:
1. The Japanese aren't sue crazy.
2. Us foreigners are perceived as too stupid to utilize the court system (and it isn't like the U.S. where taking someone to small claims court is relatively cheap, easy and streamlined... at least in the city I'm from.)

As a result, there's a certain type of person who can simply walk away from their responsibilities. Most English teachers I know have had experiences with at least one ekaiwa where the owner might make clear promises to get them to sign the contract, then at some point doesn't deliver, and will sometimes be arrogant about it. -- My first experience was a school that promised all teachers exuberant bonuses in the second year, then around contract renewal time would have the manager routinely call each member into the office and pretty much threaten to fire them over "anonymous complaints from students that they've done their best to sit on" - - then give the teachers "second chances" at expense of their bonus and pay raise. The teachers would usually quit... or even be pushed out and stiffed their last paycheck. - - Finally, three teachers got together... we got advice from the NUGW, and laid our intentions on the line with the manager... And the (female) owner called us crying... There was no need to go to court... She said that she'd pay us our bonuses and even severance pay but that we should GO AWAY and not cause her any more grief ON CONDITION that we not discuss the matter with ANY OTHER teachers. (Get it?) Beautiful! - - and so we did... The troublemaker teachers got paid and found other work... and everyone else got stiffed.

Ideally speaking, if teachers were quick to cause trouble when BLATANTLY stiffed, it wouldn't happen as often... but the fact is, its a well known fact: Stiffing foreign employees can be way easier than stiffing Japanese ones, but both are fairly easy to stiff if you totally lack any kind of belief in God, Karma, or are the type of person who can do something bad, wake up in the morning and not even care if its going to come back at you sometime or another.

Whatever the case, as I said, I'm pretty much walking away from the situation... however, I really do believe that as bad as some of these disillusioned GET RICH QUICK SCHEME ekaiwa owners are, even worse are the UNCLE TOM teachers who get screwed, look for work elsewhere, but go so far as recruiting the next victim to replace them because the owner has ILLEGALLY threatened to withhold their last pay check if they don't.

Anyway, in my case I estimate my *actual* losses to be about Y80,000 or so... That's not the end of the world... on the other hand... it is almost a month's rent money.

Yeah... Y80k isn't much to go to court over, really.

I think the broader issue that we are all dancing around is - are you happy being an English teaching monkey boy for a bunch of crooks? Doesn't sound like it.

The industry is disgusting and degrading and I frankly don't think it's any position for a western man to be in. But, the fact is, you will always get screwed as long as you stick around. Take some pride in yourself and figure out another way to make a living. Or just leave Japan.

Good luck, man. I really mean it. Hurts my heart to see us being treated this way.

Jack,

Well, that's the catch... I like teaching... and actually one of the companies I'm with IS pretty good... and the one school that's late on the paychecks (but that pays me) isn't so bad. (I enjoy the classes and tolerate the eccentric owner.)
My main career is "Jazz Organist" - - however, you don't see many openings for one-hit-wonder Jazz organists in the Monday Japan Times and it beats flipping burgers or having to dress up like Mickey Mouse, who I hate. - - The funny story, incidentally is that I had always dreamed of being a Jazz musician but AVOIDED going full time professional until after my first round of teaching in Japan... I thought - - well, I always thought you can't sink any lower than being a musician, so maybe I'm wrong... and went back to the states, did my first CD - - It charted andplayed on all the big stations - - but was a total financial disaster (unlike teaching, whereby I made money but get screwed out of "tidbits" on occasion.

To be clear: I enjoy teaching: However, some of the companies are so slimy, it really ruins it for everyone.

Well, I always think: Could be worse. I could be in a situation like an Indian, lured by fantastic stories, on his way to seek money for his family in Dubai's construction industry, only to arrive and find himself in the detestable grips of indentured servitude and horror I cannot in my wildest dreams fathom.
Like Dubai, Japan is a glittery land for opportunities and opportunists on both side of the racial divide; stepping off the winged boat at Narita I reckon we all experience some sort of wide-eyed awe at this land, and its peace and poise and cleanly surface hides well the ugly truth underneath: that Japanese can be as ruthless and cunning as everyone else on the face of this earth. And the way you deal with that is through law--by using the law to obtain what you had lost. To sue or not to sue over a measly Y80k: The fact is that these insidious business owners are taking a calculated risk- -they know the meager likelihood of having to deal with the court-embodied wrath of a foreigner. If enough employees kept such companies in check--kept them honest through threat of lawsuit, and publicized the dealings of individual companies--things would, I honestly believe, start changing, for Japanese and NJs alike.