We’ve taken a look at GEOS and the news late last week of its bankruptcy filing.  Here is what we know so far. GEOS filed for bankruptcy due to an inability to continue to manage its debts.  It seems as if the company  has been unable to let go of a large number of loss-making schools.  We offered some advice for those that have been affected and are looking to secure a job in Japan and will be adding more shortly.

During the bankruptcy filing it became clear that the effect of GEOS declaring insolvency would not be as severe as what happened when NOVA folded.  This is because  G.communication , based in Nagoya, which took over a number of NOVA schools previously, has this time agreed to take on management of some 230 GEOS outlets.  This occurred just as GEOS attempted to halt the bankruptcy proceedings.

A list of those that will still close can be found here.

Now for a further update: Classes were reopened at 201 schools last Friday and will resume later at 29 other schools. Of Geos’s total of about 36,800 students, 29,000 are registered at the Geos schools taken over by G.communication based in Nagoya. Students at the Geos schools being closed can continue their studies at nearby Geos schools or at schools of Nova Corp., a language school taken over by G.communicatin in 2007, for tuition already paid. Refunds will not be granted for classes that students have not yet taken, according to Geos. Meanwhile, the founder and president of Geos said he will ask the Tokyo District Court to avert bankruptcy proceedings for the company.

‘‘A company has come forward to extend financial support to Geos, so it does not have to go bankrupt,’’ Tsuneo Kusunoki, 62, said. An executive in charge of financial affairs, who is one of the three board members at Geos including Kusunoki, decided to file for bankruptcy protection, according to Kusunoki. The Geos president said he is considering taking countermeasures as he did not agree with the executive’s decision. The financial executive and some other Geos officials, who filed for the bankruptcy proceedings, told reporters that although there was disagreement in the company’s management over whether it should go bankrupt, the application for court protection was legal. But a lawyer for Kusunoki said the application may have constituted an abuse of rights. ‘‘I would like to protect as many students and employees as possible,’’ Kusunoki said, adding that the transfer of so many schools to G.communication would make it difficult to save them.

Kusunoki is expected to voice his opposition when the Tokyo court holds a hearing with parties concerned to decide whether it should order the launch of bankruptcy proceedings. Geos was founded in 1973 in the city of Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture, and the number of its schools peaked at 500 during its heyday. The company, which says it has 2,100 employees on its payroll, followed an expansionary policy of setting up English language schools in other countries such as Canada, Australia, Singapore and South Korea. More to come ASAP.