Migration of Foreign Nurses to Japan Under the Economic Partnership Agreement: Trends and Challenges through Sociological Perspective

Over 400 Indonesian nurses and 300 Filipino nurses entered to Japan under the Japan-Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement (hereafter ‘JI-EPA’) and Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement hereafter ‘JP-EPA’) in past six years.  This is the first case for Japanese government to officially receive foreign nurses to Japanese hospitals. Under these agreements, Indonesian and Filipino nurses can work as a registered nurse in Japan, after they pass the national examination for registered nurses in Japanese language, within three years after their entry to Japan. However, the recent phenomenon indicates that many implementations on this program should be made. The number of applicants as nurses and as hospitals for this program has been shallowed, and many criticisms on the programs have been discussed in both sending and receiving countries. One of the criticisms is based on the absence of the governance of the nurses, including Japanese and foreign nurses, of the programs. In this presentation, the JI-EPA and JP-EPA programs are analyzed through quantitative and qualitative analysis which author and her co-researchers have been working for since 2007. Throughout the study, some suggestions will be made to contribute the cross national movement of health professionals in Asian countries.