article hereExcerpts:
"According to a health ministry estimate, Japan will have a shortfall of more than 1 million workers in nursing care services in 2025."
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"According to the center, only 2,302 people applied for nursing care positions through all the center's branch offices nationwide in 2003, which met only 14.1 percent of job vacancies, and only 2.3 percent of prospective employers succeeded in finding staff."
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"......people tend to regard nursing care service as one of the 3Ks (kitanai, kiken and kitsui, which translate as the 3Ds--dirty, dangerous and difficult)............In addition to long working hours, which include night shifts, low wages are attributed to the unpopularity of the job. A ministry survey on wages for home helpers showed that only 5.6 percent earned more than 300,000 yen a month, while the majority--40 percent--earn between 150,000 yen and 200,000 yen a month."
Meanwhile back at denial HQ...
"The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) has asked the government to exercise restraint in accepting foreign nurses and nursing care workers.
'If the management of medical institutions and nursing care business regard foreigners as a 'cheap' workforce, working conditions in the field could be lowered,' Yasutaka Suga, executive director of Rengo's working conditions department, said. 'That would alienate more Japanese workers.'."
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