Foreign nursing school students to get ¥2.5 mil in scholarships

Its a loan that presumably needs paying back, and on a Caregivers salary.... ? Stuck in a low-paying job indefinitely attempting to pay off a loan which will take a work lifetime to pay off ?

I agree with other contributors here - pay people to come and do the job, if it's something that's needed rather than giving loans.

¥2.5million !

Taiwan, Vietnam and Philippines please. They come because they love and want to live in Japan, not for the money. 

Thats quite a lot !

When word gets out, you may have 345,000 applying !

Good initiative. More trainees from friendly and free nations like Taiwan, Vietnam and Philippines please. They come because they love and want to live in Japan, not for the money. 

LOL

Well, N2, or Japanese kanji, I don't think is this really necessary because im sure by remembering those patients name in kanji they can read it. I'm not sure about the work if they can work or stay longer, aside from hard work, and the winter will give them a homesickness.

Gunma Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, has been offering Japanese language courses for foreign caregivers since April 2017 as an enticement to remain in the rural area.

Are these lessons free? They should be!

This is not really a scholarship. It's a loan. The last thing these young people need is to be indebted to the Japanese government.

Great for them.

Chen, 28, is one of a number of foreign students in Hokkaido municipalities who will receive loan-based scholarships this spring of 2.5 million yen per year for their caregiving work in regional areas facing serious labor shortages.

Time for the morning fluff-piece, eh? I'm surprised they don't drop these stories from planes...

So.. read the fine-print. They almost sneaked that one past. It's a "loan-based scholarship". So, wouldn't that basically be the same as a student loan?

Under the new visa system, Japan will accept around 345,000 workers over the next five years.

If I recall correctly, they will be allowed to stay up to 5 years (if approved). Not the unrelated "indefinite" term that the article inserts a few sentences later.

Nice propaganda fluff-piece! You would be a fool to join this program and many people are rightly against it. Japan created this mess, and is still ready to adequately deal with it. Don't bring foreigners in as a scapegoat.

"loan-based scholarships"? Scholarships are money that is given, not loaned.

"The foreign students will be exempt from returning all of the money if they work at designated..."

If these were scholarships, they wouldn't have to "return" any of the money once their studies are complete. The article should use the phrase "(conditional) financial assistance," not "scholarships."

Good initiative. More trainees from friendly and free nations like Taiwan, Vietnam and Philippines please. They come because they love and want to live in Japan, not for the money. Also, no need to panic about so called "shortfall" in care workers. AI and Robot technology will be very advanced by 2025.

@Meiyouwenti You think the Japanese government wouldn't prefer supporting their own? The problem is that the long-term forecast is that with such a rapidly aging society, there simply won't be enough young Japanese "aspiring" to be caregivers, especially not those who want to go to smaller rural areas. So, don't be jealous. The government is actually preparing for 20, 30+ years into the future. By 2050, it's estimated that 1/3 of the Japanese population will be 65 years old or older.

if there were any

There wouldn’t be a shortage in caregivers if the government gave the 2.5 million yen scholarship to young Japanese aspiring to be caregivers.

I have to give serious props to any foreigners who can pass Japanese language proficiency to become caregivers. my stepdaughter, who is Japanese, is going to the training now and she's always complaining about how difficult the kanji is.