The fall of NOVA, Japan’s largest English language school has been well documented. One would think that the actions taken by the Japanese government (placing sanctions on NOVA sales that all but landed the knock out blow) would signal tougher times for all corporations that engage in similar shady practices. Not so, in my opinion.

According to an article in today’s Japan Times:

The Fair Trade Commission issued a warning Friday to NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp., the country’s two biggest mobile phone operators, for running misleading advertisements describing their cell phone rate plans.

The FTC cautioned the companies for putting pertinent information in fine print, in apparent violation of the truth-in-advertising law.

The article goes on to mention that this is not the first “warning” that was issued to these two companies:

The FTC issued similar warnings to the companies last year. Separately Friday, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications urged the two to improve their ads.

This is a tad perplexing to me because one might figure that with repeated warnings some harsher penalty would be enforced. I do not defend NOVA for poor management and the smoke screens of lies and deceit. I think it should have suffered (regardless of my prior affiliation with NOVA as an Assistant Trainer). But what these two companies are being “warned” to stop doing is what NOVA was punished for. At first instance NOVA was challenged on its refund policy, that it was not clear and confusing, and that various claims NOVA was making were false (like students could schedule lessons at any time). Action was taken. What is happening here? No action is being taken. These companies get away with “warnings” from multiple government organizations.

The severity of actions against major telecommunications companies has farther-reaching ramifications than the collapse of NOVA. A nation’s telecommunications industry is a major economic indicator of that nation’s stability and prowess. Telecommunications is what has caused this world to be a smaller place. It is a lifeline in many of our lives. So, should the government proceed with some tact and delicacy…maybe? In the course of the rule of law, one has to ask – Is Lady Justice indeed blind? Is the Japanese government showing bias, or even corruption by letting these companies off with “warnings?”