Collapse Of Vacant Japanese Accepting Migrant Care Workers Policy

Why has most Japanese migration policies ended in failure? Since 1990 the Japanese government have argued that we will positively accept highly skilled workers for competing economic globalization. By 2006, the Japanese government had concluded EPA agreements with the Philippines, Indonesia and the other East Asian countries. The Japanese care industry strongly disagreed with this agreement but the Japanese government still asked for the abolishment of a tariff in exchange for accepting care workers. Though the Japanese care industry is suffering from a serious labor shortage, Japan has designed  an absolute strict institution  with high entry barriers for foreign care workers.                                       

At the beginning of this program, hundreds of candidates came to Japan and trained for the National Nursing Examination which is the same for a Japanese examinee. The first examination was held in 2008, 82 candidates took this examination but no one could pass. The next year, three candidates could pass this exam from 254 candidates. In addition to this low pass rate, nurse candidates can take this exam three times in three years and care workers have only one chance in the fourth year. Obviously candidates who can’t pass the exam must return to their country. How can they keep their motivation?

Five years have passed since this program started, the number of candidates is declining each year. The most significant problem with this program is foreign care workers were unwanted by the Japanese care industry. Japan takes no account of their former job careers, even if they have a nurse license in their home country. These skills and experiance are just a prerequisite for being a candidate.

Even though Japan has the most aging population coupled with lowest birth rate in the world, Japanese government are still lacking a long wide vision in regard to migration policy.