Not enough nurses. It is a growing problem in much of the world, including Japan.
This week, the Japanese government announced plans to step up recruitment of nurses from Southeast Asia. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will start a nursing care education program in Indonesia.
It will also help pay for regional staff recruiting trips by Japanese hospitals and elder care facilities. Japan has already been recruiting nurses from the region for more than 15 years under a series of Economic Partnership Agreements.
Three key source countries are Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. Federal immigration figures show those three together now make up nearly a third of all foreign nurses in Japan.
But it is not just a matter of recruitment — retention also remains a challenge. An article this year in the peer-reviewed journal BMC Nursing found foreign nurses in Japan “experienced many difficulties” and “tended to be isolated because of their non-Japanese status.”
Japan's aging population is driving the need for more nursing care workers.
At the end of last year, nearly 30,000 foreign nationals were working in Japan in nursing care. The government's target is nearly twice that number.
