JAPAN: 1,000 Indonesian Nurses to Help in Elderly Healthcare

TOKYO (Japan Today), May 17, 2008: Japan and Indonesia agreed Friday that Japan will begin accepting a total of 1,000 nurses and nursing-care specialists from the Southeast Asian nation over the next two years from July, government officials said. The move came after the Diet approved a bilateral economic partnership agreement to that effect at a plenary session of the House of Councillors, the upper house, earlier in the day. In the first six months, candidates will receive Japanese-language training and work as caregivers or assistant nurses at hospitals or nursing homes for the elderly. If the nursing-care workers and nurses pass national exams within three and four years respectively, the workers will be able to remain in Japan. But they will be forced to leave the country if they fail the exams. © 2008 Kyodo News.