American Club (eikaiwa)
American Club is a company based in Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan. It started on July 15, 1986, and ran English conversation classes (eikaiwa), often taught by native teachers from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. At its peak it operated a main school in Utsunomiya and six branches in nearby areas of Tochigi Prefecture, plus locations in Koga (Ibaraki Prefecture) and Sendai (Miyagi Prefecture).
After Japan’s asset price bubble burst in the early 1990s, the school ran into serious financial trouble. In summer 1994 wages were late, and by October 1994 the school had stopped paying wages. A group of employees, led by Don MacLaren, formed a branch union and sued the company’s president Hiroaki Sugimoto and director Isao Konno. The workers ultimately received three months of back wages in December 1994, with a pledge that teachers would refrain from damaging the company’s reputation. Despite the payroll problems, the school continued to hire new teachers from overseas through a Vancouver-based broker and via The Japan Times job ads. Sugimoto also acted as landlord and collected rent from the school through another company he owned.
By December 1995 wages were again three months late. Sugimoto had resigned as president, and Konno became president, but Sugimoto’s name remained listed as responsible for the Oyama and Mooka schools. After the New Year holidays in 1996, Konno fled, claiming that Sugimoto had threatened him. Yasuki Yamauchi of Fukuoka assumed legal responsibility from afar. A January 1996 Asahi Shimbun report described difficulty reaching the company by phone, and teachers did not meet Yamauchi, so many stopped working. The school stopped holding English classes in 1996, though Sugimoto continued to run IBL (a government-supported entity).
A second wage lawsuit was filed in January 1996 for three months of unpaid wages, but the directors did not appear in court and ignored the court order. The Labor Standards Office later paid about 80% of the back wages. With no income, many teachers returned home. The total unpaid wages during the lawsuits amounted to more than US$100,000, and students who had prepaid for classes could have lost money. Rent for branch spaces and teachers’ apartments, which had been deducted from pay, was also overdue for up to a year.
During the second lawsuit, local newspapers ran stories, and former employee Don MacLaren published letters and essays in journals and The Japan Times. Although some reports said American Club was closed, the business registration still lists the company as a legally operating entity, with about 30 million yen in equity. Shimotsuke Shinbun, a local newspaper, advertised American Club’s services, indicating the company’s continued legal existence despite the problems.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 15:22 (CET).