The Japan Times is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by The Japan Times, Ltd., a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the Kioicho Building in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, shortly as JET Programme, is a teaching program sponsored by the Japanese government that brings university graduates to Japan as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs), Sports Education Advisors (SEAs) or as Coordinators for International Relations (CIRs) in local governments and boards of education.
An Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) is a foreign national serving as an assistant teacher in a classroom in Japan, particularly for English as a second language.
Education in Japan is managed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan. Education is compulsory at the elementary and lower secondary levels, for total of nine years.
The Japan Meteorological Agency, a division of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, is dedicated to the scientific observation and research of natural phenomena. Headquartered in Minato, Tokyo the agency collects data on meteorology, hydrology, seismology, and volcanology, and other related fields. Through analysis and interpretation of this information, the JMA provides insights to the public, offering knowledge and forecasts to enhance preparedness and mitigate risks associated with weather patterns, earthquakes, volcanic activities, and other natural occurrences.
Berlitz Corporation is a language education and leadership training company which is based in Princeton, New Jersey. The company was founded in 1878 by Maximilian Berlitz in Providence, Rhode Island in the United States. Berlitz Corporation is owned by Berlitz Holdings, a company established through a 100% investment by ILSC Holdings LP, with more than 547 company-owned and franchised locations in more than 70 countries.
Nova is a large eikaiwa school in Japan. It was by far the largest company of this type until its widely publicized collapse in October 2007. Before its bankruptcy, Nova employed approximately 15,000 people across a group of companies that supported the operations of and extended out from the "Intercultural Network" of its language schools. The scope of its business operations reached its peak in February 2007 following a rapid expansion of its chain to 924 Nova branches plus a Multimedia Center located in Osaka.
ECC Foreign Language Institute is one of the major private English teaching companies or eikaiwa in Japan. It is part of the ECC group.
Labour unions emerged in Japan in the second half of the Meiji period, after 1890, as the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization. Until 1945, however, the labour movement remained weak, impeded by a lack of legal rights, anti-union legislation, management-organized factory councils, and political divisions between “cooperative” and radical unionists.
In Japan, a Coordinator for International Relations, or CIR, is a participant on the JET Programme residing and working in the country. Although responsibilities for a CIR vary according to their contracting organization, the majority of a CIR's time is spent organizing and assisting various projects related to adjusting Japanese society to an increasingly multilingual, multicultural, and international world. Many of these projects include but are not limited to: international exchange programmes, primary and secondary school visits, language classes, cooking classes, cultural lectures, as well as translating and interpreting. CIRs are employed throughout Japan at international exchange associations, prefectural offices, city halls, town halls, village halls, and boards of education.
The Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) is a Japanese government-affiliated general incorporated foundation established in 1988 to support the international activities of local governments to strengthen international collaboration, particularly around regional development and revitalisation. Its headquarters are in Tokyo and there are domestic branch offices in each prefecture in Japan, as well as a network of overseas offices in major cities around the world.
Louis Carlet is the founder of Tozen, a union representing both Japanese and migrant workers, including foreign language teachers, bank and newspaper workers.
The General Union is a labor union founded in 1991 and headquartered in Osaka, Japan. Membership is open to all nationalities and all workers. It has members working in trading companies, factories and restaurants but the majority of members are teachers and staff who are employed in language education at private conversation schools, high schools and universities in the Kansai and Chubu regions of Japan. Union members work at universities such as Ritsumeikan University, and language schools such as ECC, Berlitz and Gaba. Recent years have also seen the union launching major organizing drives among South American workers in Japan, along with Filipino workers.
English-language education in Japan began as early as 1600 with the initial contacts between the Japanese and Europeans. Almost all students graduating from high school in Japan have had several years of English language education; however, many still do not have fluent English conversation abilities.
Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union, or Tozen Union, is a Japanese labour union. It was founded on April 25, 2010, by Louis Carlet, Tony Dolan, and David Ashton. It is a "godo roso" general amalgamated union, the first ever in Japan with foreigners holding all three top executive positions.
An unfair labor practice is discrimination by an employer in Japan against a worker who is associated with a union, or refusal by an employer to negotiate with a trade union, or interference in the activities of a union. Unfair labor practices are defined under Article 7 of the 1949 Trade Union Law. They are ruled on by Labour Relations Commissions.
Rosetta Stone Learning Center is a chain of eikaiwa and French conversation schools in Japan.
The University Teachers Union was founded in January 1999 and represents the interests of tertiary-level teachers in the Kanto region of Japan. Membership is open to any teacher, regardless of nationality, who is employed at a university, college, or post-graduate institution in a non-management post. Under Japanese Trade Union Law, the University Teachers Union has the right to conduct collective bargaining with schools on behalf of its members. While negotiations with management are conducted in Japanese, internal business is mostly conducted in English.
Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社) is a chain of eikaiwa English conversation schools in Japan. It is a branch of Berlitz Corporation, a subsidiary of ILSC Holdings LP.
The British Embassy, Tokyo is the chief diplomatic mission of the United Kingdom in Japan, with the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Japan being the chief of mission. The embassy compound measures about 35,000 m2, located at No 1 Ichibanchō, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, to the west of the Imperial Palace, and separated from the latter by a moat.
