The collapse of the Geos eikaiwa (English conversation school) chain earlier this year came as a cruel blow to an industry still struggling to restore its credibility years after Nova's high-profile implosion.
Since the Nova bankruptcy of 2007, the financial situation at the major schools has continued to worsen, with both student numbers and sales dropping, and many teachers are now looking for ways to make money outside the big eikaiwa model.
"The model depends on a constant intake of students and their cash, and with the moribund economy and shrinking population, the luster has worn off of forking over hundreds of thousands of yen to spend an hour or two a week studying English with a foreigner," says Shawn Thir, who blogs on LetsJapan.org, a website that documents the fortunes of Japan's eikaiwa industry.