An English teacher writes: "Recently, my company placed me on a three-month suspension from work, until five days before my fixed-period employment contract expires. As I am still employed, I cannot claim unemployment benefits, and this lengthy period makes it almost financially prohibitive to remain in Japan.

"This year, my 10th at the company, I became a declared union member. When I sought clarification via my union as to the grounds of the suspension, I was told it was for deviating from a scheduled lesson plan and incorporating an NHK report on the new English curriculum for 5th- and 6th-graders into my classes. The video, mostly in Japanese, was a 25-minute feature I showed to four 45-minute classes one morning. The company stated that I did not provide a 'rational explanation' for my behavior.

"I gave management an hourlong presentation/walkthrough of the lesson and an explanation of why I chose to deviate from the lesson plan, which was to provide students with 'peer mirroring,' i.e., to show how other students across Japan, in the same program, participate in class, and also how the teaching staff vary (Japanese home room teachers, American and Filipino ALTs (assistant language teachers), etc.) and how the teachers' methods vary, despite working from the same text.