Japan sees surge in foreign nursing care students amid labor shortage

My wife works at a govt. subsidized senior care facility.... she works very hard and holds various licenses but she basically makes dirt for wages. Part of the problem is wages for women in the elderly care profession are just terrible. Her boss, who is being transferred to another facility asked my wife if she would like to transfer there also, since she's such a hard worker, but they were unable to offer her more money. Why would she want to travel an extra 30 minutes each way and without any incentive. Its not just elderly care.... its is Japan overall... they complain about the lack of inflation but no one wants to pay anyone what they're worth. So what you'll end up with is a bunch of foreign women, probably living in a dorm of some sort, working for dirt too but happier because it is better than what they'd make back home. By bringing in more and more people like this and not increasing wages.... Japan will eventually be reduced to the 3rd world country all the foreigners are coming from. Especially if the companies that employ them do not modernize and increase productivity.

Japan needs to provide a more attractive work environment such as raising wages and support for childrearing to keep attracting foreign caregivers, said Miku Ishibashi of the Daiwa Institute of Research.

This is one thing the government most definitely does NOT want from the foreign care givers. They do not want them to come here, get pregnant, and use the resources of the social welfare system.

The government wants quiet, pliable, indentured servants, who are willing to work here for up to five years, plus minus a few, go through hoops to get the language certifications needed, and then toss them under the bus just about when they finally are getting used to the system and have some real value to their employers!

By bringing in more and more people like this and not increasing wages.... Japan will eventually be reduced to the 3rd world country all the foreigners are coming from. Especially if the companies that employ them do not modernize and increase productivity.

Japan's future is looking like a cross between Detroit and Dubai: abandoned villages all across Hokkaido and Tohoku reverting back to nature while the dwindling population crams into the Pacific coast cities with an underclass of indentured Asian servants to do the dirty work.

By bringing in more and more people like this and not increasing wages.... Japan will eventually be reduced to the 3rd world country all the foreigners are coming from. 

Spot on. Same as the recent trend in hiring ALT "teachers" from Third-World countries to teach here in Japan.

I now fully support The Shinz. He has kept wages low and stymied inflation. He has done such an amazing job. These short term workers are exactly what is needed. After 5 years go away we need younger people and let's face it after five years your way too old to be of use. I'm sure their Japanese skills will be beneficial in their home countries. And who would not want to spend their time mingling with caring for the aged, For a minimum wage. There really needs an overhaul and a 50% + wage rise. Never happen.

My wife had a brief spell on unemployment insurance earlier this year, just three months. Anyway during it, Hello Work, the Japanese job center offered her a chance to do a training course for the two-year caregiver qualification. It was.

free full-time tuition for two years. (about 1.2 million yen a year at a private college)

travel expenses covered (about 90 minutes by train, about 400,000 yen per year)

her three months of unemployment benefit extended for two years while she studied (about 2.5 million yen total)

So getting on for 6 million yen off the taxpayer to train up a middle-aged woman with three kids on the off chance she'll make use of the qualification. This screams to me that they are desperate.

(it was too much traveling so we didn't consider it).

Raise the wage! Is that too much to ask? Raising tax seems easy, why is it so hard to raise the basic wage? Little hint people with more disposable incomes spend more...might help reach that 2% that seems so elusive. The skill set required to work in this industry is worth way way way more than the current base salery. Is it so obvious? Or just me.

@saiko

you make some fair points but then you throw these illogical statements at the end:

By bringing in more and more people like this and not increasing wages.... Japan will eventually be reduced to the 3rd world country all the foreigners are coming from. Especially if the companies that employ them do not modernize and increase productivity. 

even with these additional foreign workers, the percentage of gaikokujin will barely approach 3% of the total population. and these workers aren't given permanent work visas (they typically end after 5 years). furthermore, if companies "modernize and increase productivity" that doesn't correlate to higher wages for workers. it would only mean a decrease in the number of workers needed. and one last point is that low skilled and low paying workers does not turn a country into a third world country, unless you are implying that the US and most of western europe are third world countries since they all do this, too.

Some spot-on comments above regarding the superficial bandaging of a terminal social illness.

Just to add another angle, now 36 years teaching in Japanese colleges (resigned from a tenured position as Associate Professor at Jissen Women's College due to racist polities) I briefly taught some of these college-age or older immigrant workers in a 'vocational school' covering as a front for short term employment opportunities.

On the first day of class, I had the students stand up and ask me a self-introduction question to make some connections and suss out their English level.

Near the end of the class, of the two remaining standing students, one Chinese guy in clear despair for even being in the class, asked me if I had any regrets in life ... I gave as positive a song and dance as I could. But the next question was harder, a young Vietnamese girl, even more sullen and downcast, asked me 'Do you like Japanese?

With the Prime Minister's goal of passing into law a new work visa limiting these students to a 5 year stay, 10 at max, at minimum wage and with no career path, and with no provisions for spouse support ... it appears from these students that the LDP will get their money's worth, and no more. I can't imagine a better example of a lose-lose situation.

Like I have been saying for ages, DO YOU wanna grow old in Japan?

This is another article that shows the train wreck we are all on here, bottom line is there will soon be next to no services available to the average Tanaka san in their old age.

And while I whole heartily agree wages need to rise badly in this (& other fields), the sad fact is a significant rise in health care costs will make it so the vast majority will NOT be able to afford care...…..

Real double edged sword Japan is on now & of course with the ever dropping birthrate, Japan is getting hammered from top & bottom of its population pyramid!

Japans many problems are going to be hitting hard a LOT sooner than many realize!

with respect to wages it's my guess that they can go up without affecting services if managed correctly since the numbers of patients are far greater than workers. It comes across to me as a management problem not a numbers problem

Of all foreign students, those from Vietnam totaled 542, followed by those from China at 167, Nepal at 95, Indonesia at 70, and the Philippines at 68.

A tiny, tiny amount. Many more are needed and decent wages should be a priority for both domestic and international carers here.

I have nothing but admiration for carers (wherever they hail from). When you see up close what they do for your loved ones and how they interact and show genuine friendship and concern with the patient - it brings tears to your eyes.

Time they were valued much, much more. None of us are getting any younger.

Japanese students appear to steer clear of the job which is considered a low-wage one. The average monthly wage in the caregiving sector is about 100,000 yen less than in other industries.

Thats totally blown the myth of how Japanese care and respect their elderly. I know people who have completed their training and they work around 25 days per month for salaries around ¥220,000 per month. It should not be surprising that 80% of these trainees leave Japan as soon as their training is complete. I’m quite sure that most of these trainees take this opportunity as a Japan adventure and not as a serious career choice.

as other countries such as Germany, Britain, the United States and Singapore are also looking for foreign workers in the caregiving sector.

This should not be any surprise either as other countries offer much better salaries and working conditions.

Say it again. These imported people don’t know japanese culture, history or language. Not good for hospitals or care homes. Ok for factories or combinis.

We all agree, but somehow the government is clueless. Perhaps their care givers are unable to express themselves, not having passed the Nihongo test.

So after they're done with the schooling, and after they've passed a 5,000-question exam written in Meiji-era kanji, they'll be allowed to go empty bedpans, right?

Say it again. These imported people don’t know japanese culture, history or language. Not good for hospitals or care homes. Ok for factories or combinis.

Knowing how to speak the language is a given, but OJT is the FASTEST way to learn any language, not in some classroom that teaches Japanese to foreigners similar to how Japanese teach English to Japanese!

Also they don't need to know Japanese culture, or history, to be a care-giver! Hell there are more than enough Japanese themselves that don't know either as well and they do fine!

@Goodkuckyou - Say it again. These imported people don’t know japanese culture, history or language. Not good for hospitals or care homes. Ok for factories or combinis

it’s all well and good to condemn foreign people for a lack of understanding of this small island in the pacific. However, before you go condemning this initiative, you should consider alternatives. What alternatives does Japan have to importing foreign workers? Let the 20% of the population who are over 70 take care of themselves? It is attitudes like this that keep Japan a generation behind the rest of the world and will continue to make Japan struggle internationally. Japanese people have to accept that the Edo period is well and truly over. The only way forwards is through compromise and acceptance of foreigners.

No doubt many elderly Japanese are champing at the bit waiting to get into a nursing home and start getting looked after by all of the kind, attentive,caring,gentle, devoted staff who have come from Third World countries with the sole ambition of attending to the needs of elderly Japanese.

But it is unclear whether Japan will be able to continue to see an increase in foreign students, as other countries such as Germany, Britain, the United States and Singapore are also looking for foreign workers in the caregiving sector.

We may end up with a similar situation to university students where the brightest and better off go to study in the US and the less bright and less well off come to Japan, using Monbusho scholarships wherever possible. Anyone coming to Japan for a nursing job is going to have to learn a very difficult language to be considered. Most educated Filipinos will know English already.

There is also the moral issue of whether First World countries should really be "stealing" trained medical staff from poor countries, instead of (paying to) train their own. This is already rife with the UK's NHS.

"The government wants quiet, pliable, indentured servants, who are willing to work here for up to five years, plus minus a few, go through hoops to get the language certifications needed, and then toss them under the bus just about when they finally are getting used to the system and have some real value to their employers!"

Well in this case they can't have their cake and eat it too. Some workers will get married and have children who will be half Japanese and half (fill in the blank).

@do the hustle. I propose care homes the size of shopping centers for up to 10000 residents. Shops, cafes, gyms, medical facilities, hotel rooms for family visits, gardening plots, etc all in one big building.

With the Prime Minister's goal of passing into law a new work visa limiting these students to a 5 year stay, 10 at max, at minimum wage and with no career path, and with no provisions for spouse support ... it appears from these students that the LDP will get their money's worth, and no more. I can't imagine a better example of a lose-lose situation.

This is the key point. And it isn't just in elderly care; even with these supposedly-international companies that use English and purport to be innovative and global, the most common complaint from their onternational workers is that there is no career path; no rising wages; no sense of permanency. Just bring them to Japan, wring what knowledge you can from them, then send them back to their home countries. The LDP and their big-business cronies really seem to think this is Japan's way forward. I'd say they are in for a rude awakening -- but something tells me they will never be awoken, and that ordinary Japanese people will be the ones doing the suffering, with lower wages, longer hours, and a lower quality of life.

Let’s see how many of these foreigners last? Working conditions, salaries, etc. will Test the whole system. Don’t mean to be a nego but I can’t hold my breath here.

Spot on. Same as the recent trend in hiring ALT "teachers" from Third-World countries to teach here in Japan.

You mean Philippines?

I guess Japan just discovered that Philippines make excellent ESL teachers for 1/10th price... and that Philippines has one of the highest EF EPI score in Asia.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-20066890