This is a summary of an article originally posted on EikaiwaReview. Read the full story here.
Many people are left with their sole source of income and even their apartment gone after the collapse of Geos, so how does the industry get past this?
A few weeks ago Edward Chmura, the owner of the popular Japundit social news site, announced he was planning to close the site or sell it before the end of April. This had a lot of us in the English-language Japan-focused blog-o-sphere scrambling for ideas on how to save this great resource.
Just like the popular social news Digg, Japundit relies on users to submit and vote news articles. Unlike Digg however, Japundit limits itself to a specific niche, that being English news about Japan and the far-east.
Japundit is a great resource for bloggers and news readers alike. It helps bloggers to get their word out to those who are interested, and it helps readers to find information about Japan in English. So when the news hit Japundit might be disappearing readers and bloggers alike stepped up to help Edward in preserving this important medium.
I was delighted yesterday when Edward announced that all the reactions he had received had prompted him to reconsider, and to keep operating Japundit in its current form. Thank you for your continued hard work Edward, on behalf of bloggers and readers alike.
This is a summary of an article originally posted on EikaiwaReview. Read the full story here.
Today Geos, one of the three largest language schools in Japan, has declared bankruptcy. Many insiders saw it coming, but to the general Japanese public this is still a surprise.
To comply with a change in the Japanese law, PayPal has removed the option to make personal payments for all Japanese users. They say it’s temporary, and to clarify the change they have emailed out a FAQ to their Japanese users.
Q. What are “personal payments”? Give me some examples.
Personal payments are payments made to individuals as opposed to businesses, for example, when you send funds as a gift or living allowance. On the other hand, payments for the purchase of goods at auction sites for example are not regarded as personal payments.Q. I have a Personal account. Does the restriction on personal payments mean I cannot send any payments?
No. Regardless of whether you have a Personal, Premier or Business account, you will continue to be able to shop online and use the PayPal services for the payment of goods and services. This restriction of services only applies to non-commercial transactions such as the sending of money to a family member for living allowance.You will continue to be able to use our “Send Money” function for commercial transactions. We have removed the Send Money-Personal Payment tab in Japan.
Q. Does the restriction on personal payments affect all types of PayPal accounts?
Yes. Regardless of whether you have a Personal, Premier or Business account, effective March 31st 2010, you cannot send funds to individuals such as family members and friends for non-commercial purposes.Q. I’m a buyer in Japan. Can you tell me what PayPal services I can use?
With PayPal, you can:
- Shop online
- Send payments for the purchase of goods and services
- Withdraw funds from your PayPal account to your bank account
- Receive funds from other PayPal users living outside of JapanQ. I’m a merchant in Japan. Can you tell me which PayPal services I can use?
You can:
- Use PayPal on your shopping carts. There is no change in the functionality of Express Checkout, Web Payment Standard, etc. We will change the functionality of personal payments only.
- Receive payments from your customers
- Send payments for purchasing goods and services
- Withdraw funds from your PayPal account to your bank account
- Mass payment for your marketing activitiesQ. If a Japan user wants to send money to his/her friends or relatives, how can he/she do it?
Japanese users cannot send money to their friends or relatives living in Japan or outside of Japan. They can only make payments for the purchase of goods or services.Q. Why is P2P only restricted in JP, why US or other countries can still use P2P?
The purpose of this change is to comply with new regulatory requirements in Japan. Users outside Japan will not be affected.
It looks like what they’re saying is that pretty much nothing has changed. You can still send money to your friends, just label it as payment for a product or service.
