In Japanese, "man-tsū-man" (マンツーマン), a katakana phrase adapted from English, means "one-to-one", referring to the company's one student/one instructor lesson style.

[15] Due to declining business performance the firm underwent a major transformation at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009.

In October 2008, Kenji Kamiyama joined the company as COO and Senior Managing Executive Officer.

Kamiyama's focus was to reduce "wasteful expenditure" and to lead a rejuvenation of the profit and loss and balance sheets.

During Aono's presidency the firm expanded its number of Learning Studios, but also maintained its headquarters in the expensive GT Tower in Nakameguro, launched the ill-fated Global Stars initiative, and made decisions such as holding its company sports day in May 2007 at Tokyo Dome.

[16] On August 5, 2011, it was announced that Nichii Gakkan would purchase Gaba and make it a wholly owned subsidiary.

[18] Following Gaba's sale to Nichii Gakkan, effective December 5, 2011 Kenji Kamiyama stepped down as president, chief executive officer and Representative Director of Gaba,[19] and was replaced by Bruce Anderson,[citation needed] and Takayuki Masuda became the vice-president.

[26] Nichii Gakkan expected Gaba to begin contributing to business results from the second half of fiscal year 2012, with net sales of 4,300,000,000 and an operating income of 400,000,000.

On July 13, 2005, Gaba opened a 'next generation' learning studio designed specifically for women in Ginza.

[citation needed] It provided VIP "executive booths" that afforded complete privacy for the lesson.

[28][29] English conversation schools often gear marketing campaigns towards women, with strategies the focus on couplings between Japan and the other, represented and embodied by professional/romantic/sexual pairings between western instructors and female Japanese students.

The vast majority of them are located in the Kanto region (34), with the remaining LSs being in Chubu (2), Kansai (6) and Kyushu (1).

[35] In early 2008 Global Stars, a section of the business for teaching one-on-one lessons to children was launched.

There was not enough demand; the Learning Fields in Hiroo and Seijo were closed in 2009, and Gaba Global Stars was merged into a number of regular leaning studios.

They were designed to teach grammar points by combining a story about a mixed group of young Japanese and English-speaking characters interacting all over the world.

[39] In September 2013 the firm introduced the "Starter" textbooks, designed for students at a very low level of English.

[40] From June 2014 the firm introduced the "Snapshot Teens" textbooks, designed for teenage students at a low level of English.

At first those lessons were held in the Tokyo LS, then in the Ikebukuro Annex, and from November 2009, they relocated to the 8th floor of the new headquarters in Moto-Yoyogi.

[44] According to an interview with Reuters, Gaba students pay about 50,000 yen per month, higher than the 36,500 average allowance that company employees receive from their employers for such training.

It has held recruiting events in Canada,[46] Australia,[47] England,[48] Ireland,[49] the US,[50][51] Taiwan,[52] South Korea,[53] Hong Kong in August,[54] and Singapore.

[65][66] In August 2010, union members lodged applications with the Shibuya Hello Work office to be enrolled in unemployment insurance.

On October 4, 2010, the General Union made an official complaint to the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission,[69] part of the Financial Services Agency, over compliance issues based on Gaba stating in its report for the 2009 financial year that there was no union at the company, and that labor relations were "smooth and harmonious", and also for failing to mention the Osaka Labor Commission case and the subsequent appeal.

[65] In April 2012[75] Gaba and the General Union signed an agreement in which both sides withdrew their pending cases in the courts and government bureaucracy.

Gaba agreed to negotiate in good faith on the issue of employment status and benefits for instructors.

[77][78] On October 4, 2013, the General Union and Gaba Corporation signed a grievance procedure agreement.

This legally requires the company to respond to workplace grievances related to individual instructors in a fair and prompt manner.

[79] From 2013 the General Union raised a number of incidents where Gaba clients had sexually harassed instructors.

[80] In response to this, the company changed their policy to make it easier for instructors to block students who behaved inappropriately and introduced a standardised form for ISLs to report harassment from clients to Gaba HQ.

[81] In 2014 the Gaba Branch of the union appointed sexual harassment officers for instructors to speak to about incidents at work.

[84] Gaba teachers complained in 2014 that company management has not acted appropriately or with sufficient support when they have been sexually harassed by students at work.