[i hope they change]

Like most people I was excited to come to Japan.

I looked on the internet and found a plethora of job opportunities.
Of course there was Nova and ECC, and many other contemporary institutions that I could work but there were also many private English schools.

There were many things to think about, income, accommodation, location, holidays, completion bonus and working conditions.

Finally I chose American School/AIES in Nagoya.
I was met at the airport and taken to an apartment owned by the company.
The company has a few apartments, for teachers to rent. Some are one room apartments that are fine for single teachers and they also have larger two room apartments.
Although the single and double bedroom apartments are small, they are neat and comfortable.

When I arrived I just wanted to sleep but Dan (school principle) insisted that I come to school immediately. He took me to American school and just kept talking about the classes and what gadgets the school has. "Look we have Apple computers in the rooms" and "we have this and that" but I soon found out they had no curriculum, no plans, and relied totally on the teachers to plan everything.

I was taken to AIES. This is a second school that they own; again all Dan wanted to show me was projectors in the rooms that didn’t work properly and his Apple computers but still nothing about curriculum.

What I did notice was cameras in every room. When I asked what the cameras were for Dan said “just for parents to watch their children”. I later learned that Dan and Hitomi continually watch every class every lunch break and every conversation teachers have.

I was then told that I would be teaching from the next morning. I told him there was no way as I am tied; it was then that I saw the first real personality of Dan and Hitomi. (wife and manager)
“We will picked you up and the class starts tomorrow morning, if you don’t start your pay will be adjusted”

I should have gone back to the apartment, packed my bags and got another job but I didn’t.

I started the next day and found out that nearly everything Dan and Hitomi had told us was lies. There was no curriculum, there was no professionally run English school but rather a business that focused on making money through deception and lies, which was only able to continue due to the unbelievable hard work of the teachers.

Make No mistake Dan and Hitomi are husband and wife but they don’t have a typical husband wife relationship, it is purely business. At American school and AIES, Hitomi is the Manager and Dan is just an employee, Hitomi makes every decision and Dan does as he is told.

Dan or Hitomi will not deny or confirm the following; even in this post Dan will not confirm school ownership or his marital status.
American school/AIES is not owned by Dan or Hitomi. It is owned by Hitomi’s father, I found this out by doing a business search on the internet. (Unfortunately you must pay for the search) Hitomi is registered as the manager of the business at American school but I could not find any registration of AIES.
Now that doesn’t mean it is not registered but more than likely it is a paper business that exists but in fact all accounts are run through American school.

When I first started at American school, the very first day, most of the teachers I had met told me to leave straight away.

There were stories of abuse, (of many different types) stories of teachers leaving suddenly, fines, money being with held, Japanese laws being broken, illegal contracts, internet abuse, privacy abuse, letters of lies being sent home to parents about teachers who had opposed Dan and Hitomi, I could go on and on.

But I rationalized it away by saying that they were just stories, I thought I could stay, finish my year get my completion bonus, and stay out of trouble, but it’s impossible.


Dan and Htmoi tell new staff members that the reasons other staff have left is none of their business and so we should just do our work. While it sounds good it’s impossible to practice in reality.

If you hear story after story of people being abused, you will always be looking to see if it is true, so when something happens to confirm a story you start looking even harder.

If a teacher started work late and then got fined ￥1000 ($10) a minute for their absence, confirming a story, then you look at confirming other story’s.

The apartments teachers live are usually dirty when they move in yet the contract states that $350 will be deducted from your last pay check to have the apartment professionally cleaned.
You may think that is a fair request, but the units are not professionally cleaned before you shift in. The cleaning is done by Dan who is employed by his father in law and wife to look after the apartments. Instead of cleaning the unit he simply sweeps around items leaving filthy dust and rubbish every where. Both Dan and Hitomi will not compromise on this fee being extracted from your final pay packet, even if you have cleaned the apartment immaculately or if you have had paid to have it professionally cleaned.

Nearly every teacher working at American or AIES had gone to complain to the Labor office. Nagoya has an office where English speakers can go to make complaints several times a week.
Sadly in Japan even when you have written evidence and proof of your complaint the labor office will believe the school or business owner above your own, even when they are openly breaking the law.

Dan and Hitomi have discovered effective ways of opposing any complaint made against them to the Labor office.

Let’s set up a scenario.
You have been fined for doing something wrong at school.
You approach Dan and Hitomi and ask them why they did it and they say because of this and this. You tell them that they cannot do that and you will complain to the Labor office.
You also ask for the school rules to prove that you have broken something
They refuse to give you any rule or any answer except they can do it.
You go to the labor office and make a complaint.
The labor office agrees with you and promises they will have a meeting with Dan and Hitomi
Dan and hitomi do not show up at the planed meeting.
Several meetings are planed but they do not attend.
Finally they attend with a set of rules written in Japanese confirming that the employee has broken a law and they can fine then
The labor office rings you back and says that there is nothing they can do.

Dan and Hitomi delay the meetings with the Labor office to get their rules changed, or have additional rules included. They have a very good lawyer that writes the rules but here is what is wrong

The rules are in Japanese and so no one can read them. They labor office states that the company’s rules must be clearly displayed in English at the place of employment and lodged at the labor office but when I asked for the rules I was given a thick rule book written in Japanese, the rules were also not lodged at the labor office.

Sadly in Japan the Labor office will usually accept the company’s explanation, they know the stupid Gaijin will soon go back home to America and take their problems with them, yet they will have to continue a relationship with the company for many years.

But it’s not just the teachers that are affected by the abuse. The students and parents are also abused. While I worked at American school only 3 teachers finished their contracts, but not one left happy about their employment or without regret for staying or for not exposing the truth about what happens at the schools.

If a parent wants to remove their child from the school they must continue to pay for their child’s school fees for the remaining portion of the year, yet if a class or subject is cancelled the fee all ready paid by the parent is not returned. Many parents wanted to remove their children from the school while I was there.
At one period in time there was a group of parents that held meetings in one of their homes to discuss a mass revolt by removing an entire class from the school.
The parents actually went to another school to try and enroll their children but sadly the school did not have enough vacancies.

One parent told Dan and Hitomi that she was taking their child out of school. She was told that they still must pay all remaining school fees till the end of the year and if they didn’t they would sue them.

So a carefully planed story was made to remove a student from the school by his parents.
A parent told Dan and Hitmoi that their mother was gravely ill and that they must shift to another country to receive treatment.
The parents and the child are still in Nagoya while the child is attending another school.

The problem is that the threat of suing is always there by Dan and Hitmoi.
If you talk to students parents we will sue you
If you talk to anyone about our school we will sue you
If you don’t do what we tell you we will sue you
If you contact any parents after school we will sue you
The threat of being sued is always being used, so teachers, parents and employees say nothing but try and leave as fast as possible.

But for the teachers and office staff that do leave the trouble does not end.
If you use a computer in either school Dan and Hitomi have your passwords
They log on and read your emails. They check what you’re writing.
Dan will send emails from your accounts. He will use every power he knows of to continue his sick sense of retribution while using the internet because it is difficult for the police to trace him.

Yes he is an internet geek.
And then when you have left him the school and Japan, he will ring people you know and your parents and friends leaving stupid messages like you owe him money.

I could still go on and on and on.
Dan and Hitmoi may come on this site again and try and dispute what I’m saying but I dont think so I think he has learnt from his past failures on this site that all he showed was his continued stupidity.

But let me clear up a few more things in dispute.
Dan and Hitmoi do profess to be Mormons but are not practicing Mormons. They just use the name to attract students and employees.
Hitomi’s Father owns the business and all the property.
While I cannot confirm all the stories written by other posts I do not disbelieve any of them either.

It is my hope that past empoyees and parents of students will continue to write on this site to make people aware of what has and is happening.