JAPAN: Government to Woo Workers Into Welfare Industry

TOKYO (Japan Times - Kyodo News), September 20, 2007: Faced with a severe shortage of nursing care workers, the welfare ministry plans to carry out research in fiscal 2008 to find out why so many qualified workers are not actually doing nursing work. According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, there with 470,000 nationally certified caregivers as of September 2005, of whom more than 40 percent, or 200,000, were not involved in welfare-related businesses or do not have jobs, despite the growing need for such workers due to the aging of the population. In 2006, the average monthly wage for caregivers, excluding part-timers, was ¥214,000, well below the average of ¥331,000 among all businesses, according to research by the Care Work Foundation. Such poor working conditions are widely seen as a factor contributing to the lack of caregivers. In the upcoming survey, the ministry will attempt to collect from qualified caregivers such information as their current working conditions and whether they intend to return to the welfare business, as well as their reasons for not working in the field. Ministry officials said the government is planning to work out specific measures like training in to bring the number of care workers in the industry up to adequate levels.