Regarding the Oct. 27 front-page article "Nova applies for court protection from creditors": Are we expected now to congratulate the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for managing to crack an egg with a colossal steam hammer?
I am wondering whether the crackbrained officials who, in their questionable wisdom, had imposed their sanctimonious and totally inappropriate penalty upon Nova will spare a thought for the 7,000-odd foreign and Japanese staff who now find themselves unemployed. Let us also not forget that, in their shortsightedness, the authorities have obviously ignored the 400,000-plus satisfied diligent customer students who now find themselves with totally worthless lesson points.
Amid the zeal to punish Nova for a minor misleading transgression in advertising (we won't mention the tobacco industry here!) and to appease a mere handful of disgruntled indolent ex-students, METI has brought a relatively successful business to bankruptcy. A round of applause for these bunglers.
Actually I would much rather have heard that the bureaucrats who thought up the ludicrous punishment against Nova had been sacked and were in the same plight as I am -- unemployed. But let's not be sad, for another, more considerate department of the Japanese government can now step in to pay the 7,000 ex-Nova employees unemployment benefits for a few months.
Also let's not worry about the appalling, horrifying image of life in Japan that METI has managed to give to the foreigners who worked for Nova. They will now be able to go to their respective home countries and tell their friends and relatives of their disastrous experience in Japan. I'm sure the Japanese government doesn't really want to portray a thoughtful caring image to foreigners anyway.
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