James McCrostie is a full-time university lecturer and part-time writer. He writes mainly about labor issues related to the English-teaching industry.
For James McCrostie's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
They're back. Worries that foreign students would abandon Japan following the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and accompanying fiasco at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have proven to be largely unfounded. According to Ministry of Justice figures, 70,170 foreign students left Japan between March ...
Crawling in and out of graves isn't everyone's idea of a good time. For those willing to give it a try, though, Yoshimi Hyakuana in Saitama Prefecture makes for an interesting day trip out of Tokyo. Literally meaning, "100 holes of Yoshimi," the Yoshimi Hyakuana ...
Long accustomed to being ignored, being forgotten proved too much to take for unionized teachers at Gaba language school. On Oct. 4, the General Union registered an official complaint and request for an investigation with the Ministry of Finance's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission ...
After 20 months of legal wrangling, neither side has managed to snag a win in Berlitz Japan's ¥110 million lawsuit against five teachers and their union, Begunto. On the recommendation of the case's lead judge, the company and union have been in court-mediated reconciliation talks ...
In a country of test-takers, the Test of English for International Communication has become one of Japan's most recognized exams. In 2008, people in Japan paid ¥4,040 — or slightly less if their company or school paid a ¥100,000 membership fee — to take ...
The Test of English for International Communication turns 30 this year. In three decades it has risen from humble beginnings to become one of the best-known tests in Japan. In December 1979, 3,000 people sat the first TOEIC. In 2008, people in Japan took ...
After the second court hearing on April 20 in Berlitz Japan's lawsuit against unionized teachers, the legal fight seems bogged down in a form of trench warfare. In December, after a year of strike action by over 100 teachers, the company filed a lawsuit against ...
It has been 14 months since members of the Berlitz General Union Tokyo (Begunto) first downed chalk and launched rotating strikes against the language school Berlitz Japan. The strike has grown into the longest and largest sustained strike by language teachers in Japan. While about ...
Universities in Japan force most of their foreign instructors to play an unnerving version of musical chairs. Every year the music starts and instructors with expiring contracts scramble for an opening at a new school. University administrators force teachers to play "musical jobs" by ...
