Japan should ‘open up’ to more foreign nurses

SAYS JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER

MANILA, Philippines—Japan should “open up” to the world once more, including to more non-Japanese nurses, Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a speech during the Sixteenth International Conference on the Future of Asia hosted by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on May 20.

“We should increase the numbers of non-Japanese nurses in Japan and consider ways to enable them to help their compatriots here when required as nurses who speak the same mother tongues,” Hatoyama said.

“And in order that the family members of non-Japanese persons in Japan can receive the right education with peace of mind, we will develop educational facilities and enhance Japanese language educational institutions in the country,” he added.

Hatoyama’s statement came two weeks after 116 Filipino nurses and caregivers flew to Japan last May 9 under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

“The development of the domestic environment related to ‘(protecting) life’ and systemic reforms to ‘open up the nation’ further in lifestyle and social system aspects are as important, or indeed in some cases even more important, than economic measures such as trade liberalization,” he said.

The 116 Filipinos left for Japan two months after Filipino nurse Ever Lalin passed the Japanese Nursing Licensure Examination. Lalin was the only Filipino and one of the only three foreigners that scored a passing rate among 264 examinees, including Japanese.

Under the JPEPA, candidates are given a maximum of three opportunities to take the national nursing examinations so that the Japanese government may extend their temporary stay in Japan. Lalin was assigned to work at the Ashikaga Red Cross Hospital in Tochigi Prefecture located in the Kanto Region. –INQUIRER.net