Indonesian Nurses Given Provisional Green Light

[Mulboyne]

It looks like some of the press coverage suggesting the qualification conditions for overseas nurses and caregivers are too strict may yet have an effect on policy.

Yomiuri: Govt may review exams for nurses, caregivers

Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe says his ministry might reconsider national exam procedures for Indonesian nurses and caregivers working in Japan under a bilateral economic partnership agreement to enable them to retake the exam if they fail it the first time. A total of 205 Indonesian nurses and caregivers arrived in Japan on Thursday as the first group to provide their services under the pact that took effect July 1. The EPA obliges Indonesian nurses and caregivers to return to Indonesia if they fail to pass national qualification examinations within three years and four years, respectively, from their arrival. Commenting on this regulation, Masuzoe said, "If [Indonesian] caregivers fail the exam once, that's the end. [Under the current arrangements] I think we should be flexible [in applying the EPA rule]." Indonesian caregivers working in Japan are required to be university graduates and have undergone six months' training in Indonesia, or to be qualified in their country as nurses. Indonesians nurses must have nursing qualifications in their country and two years of work experience there.

[TFG]

The Japanese government"s main reason for allowing foreign caregivers into Japan, is so that they can treat them as toerags, and allow these so called nursing homes, to exploit them financially.
Most Japanese caregivers can hardly make a living in this profession as they are underpaid and overworked to the extent that many become physically ill and quit. Incidentally, the Yakuza are involved in many of these old age homes, my ex-wife worked at one for a few years and it seems that the Yakuza like to take out dodgy life insurance policies on some of these patients, my ex was ordered not to call an ambulance or a doctor in the middle of the night when a patient was in obvious need of emergency care and died during the night.

I wonder who they will blame when foreign care workers are involved in a case such as above?

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Care workers struggling with kanji / Indonesian nurses finding Japanese writing system a formidable challenge

"We have something similar to 'chahan' in Indonesia. It's called nasi goreng," said Tyas Palupi, a nursing care worker from Indonesia, as she fed a spoonful of fried rice to an elderly woman at Midori no Sato nursing care home in Aoba Ward, Yokohama. Palupi, 27, is one of about 200 Indonesians who arrived in Japan in the summer to work as nurses and nursing care workers under the Economic Partnership Agreement signed by the two countries. Most of the Indonesians currently are receiving Japanese lessons as part of a six-month training program before they start working at 100 hospitals and nursing care facilities around the country in late January. However, a handful of the care workers, including Palupi, started working in September, as they already had achieved a high level of language proficiency. But although they already have become an asset in the workplace due to their excellent verbal communication skills, they are still struggling with kanji characters.

At another table in the Yokohama nursing care home, Wellyana Oktavia, 27, laughed as one of the residents said something in Indonesian. The foreign care workers are highly regarded at the facility. "Wherever they go, the atmosphere glows brightly around them, as if flowers have bloomed," said Sachiko Furukawa, 59, who heads the nursing care facility. As the two Indonesian care workers worked part-time for about two years at a nursing care facility while attending a language school in Japan, they have almost no problems with daily conversations in Japanese. "They're attentive and have superb communication skills. Because they're qualified nurses back home, they're actually more skilled than we are," said Akiko Ueno, 38, who supervises the two at the facility.

But kanji remain a problem for the Indonesians. For example, they find it difficult to write reports for other workers about the conditions of their charges, as well as daily reports. Though they are able to type hiragana characters into personal computers, it is difficult for them to determine which kanji constitute the word they have typed in using the Japanese syllabic system. To continue working in Japan, the two women will be required to pass the national exam for nursing care workers within four years. "I looked at past exam questions, and there were many kanji characters I couldn't read. I sometimes think it'll be impossible [to pass the test]," Tyas said. To help the two Indonesians pass the test, the nursing care home plans to give them Japanese lessons using a textbook in which kana readings are placed above all kanji.

The language barrier is proving a big challenge for many other Indonesians currently undergoing training at six facilities across the country. Twenty-three Indonesians intending to work as nurses in Japan currently are receiving training at the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, while staying at the facility. Dasep Saepul Anwar, 27, a nurse who plans to work at a hospital in Tochigi Prefecture, spends more than six hours a day at the center learning the Japanese language and culture. He also spends upward of three hours each evening studying on his own. Thanks to watching TV programs and talking to Japanese people while out strolling, he can now speak a little Japanese. Speaking in English, Anwar said Japanese remained his prime concern and that he found kanji particularly difficult.

Hospitals and nursing care facilities that accept Indonesian nurses and nursing care workers are required to provide language lessons. In Tokyo, nine facilities, including private ones, are planning to accept a total of 14 Indonesian nurses and nursing care workers. The Tokyo metropolitan government plans to grant some subsidies to these facilities to help them fund the cost of hiring Japanese language teachers. "But we wonder whether they'll be able to pass the test [even if we provide such financial assistance]," said Keiko Dozono, a senior official of the Tokyo metropolitan government's Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health. Although hospitals and nursing care facilities planning to hire Indonesian care workers are asking the central government to take measures to help in some way if workers fail the test, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has yet to decide what it will do.

Under the EPA agreement signed by the two countries, Japan plans to accept as many as 1,000 nurses and nursing care workers over a two-year period. After studying Japanese for six months, the Indonesians will start working at hospitals and nursing care facilities throughout the country. However, nurses will be asked to return home if they fail to pass Japan's national exam within three years, and nursing care workers will be asked to go home if they fail to pass the test within four years.

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Indonesian caregivers start work at nursing homes

[omae mona]

Japan Times: Indonesian caregivers start work at nursing homes
..
Most are Muslim, which may make it hard for them to get accustomed to Japanese culture, customs and lifestyles.
..

What a bizarre statement from that Kyodo News article. What exactly do they mean? Which non-Japanese religious background makes it easier to get accustomed to Japanese culture? Masochism? Oh wait, that's not a religion...

[Mike Oxlong]

The caregivers could cause problems for their bosses, used to plying the young female staff with booze and having their way with them.