Can Brain Circulation be Possible? the Second Career Quest of Indonesian Nurses Returned from Japan

Japan opened its labor market for nurses and care workers under the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), bilateral agreements with Asian countries, namely, Indonesia, Philippines, and Indonesia, since 2008. The agreements smoothed the trade barriers between Japan and signatory countries, reducing the labor shortage in Japan by importing professional human resources. However, receiving Asian nurses does not effectively satisfy the motivation of nurses migrating to Japan, a reason for which is “to develop my professional career.”

In this presentation, the author scrutinizes how the nurse migration under the EPAs have influenced the choice of second careers of Indonesian returned nurses, by conducting quantitative and qualitative analyses. A quantitative analysis indicated that 86.2% of the respondents answered they returned to Indonesia because they wished to develop their careers in Indonesia. A qualitative analysis was conducted to clarify how they sought jobs in Indonesia after they returned from Japan. The results indicate that being a graduate nurse in Indonesia is advantageous in finding jobs after returning home, provided the nurse has basic medical knowledge and is fluent in the Japanese language. Returning nurses are likely to choose to work as interpreters for Japanese health insurance companies, where they earn much higher salaries than what they earn by working as nurses in Indonesia. The “medical oriented model” operation system in Indonesian medical institutions also hindered the returned nurses from working in such institutions, since they were used to working under the “patient oriented model” in Japan.

The study indicates that returned nurses are likely to use their professional skills in Japanese enterprises and clinics for Japanese patients in Indonesia, but less likely to contribute their nursing skills obtained abroad to their own country, Indonesia.