Job offers for Indonesian nurses drop by 60% in Japan+

TOKYO, Feb. 17 Kyodo - The number of jobs Japanese medical facilities are offering to Indonesian trainee nurses in fiscal 2010 will be 141 at most, a 60 percent drop from 362 in the previous year, a recruitment organization said Wednesday.

The Japan International Corporation of Welfare Services, which oversees
international recruitment under the 2007 Japan-Indonesia economic partnership
agreement, said the significant drop can be attributed to the financial burden
on the facilities during the recession and an increase in the number of
Japanese workers applying for jobs.
The organization said it started calling upon hospitals and nursing facilities
nationwide to accept the trainees in November last year, but it was only able
to secure jobs for 107 at 45 facilities by the Jan. 12 deadline.
After it extended the deadline by about one month, the number rose to 141 at 62
facilities but still remained low compared to fiscal 2009, it said.
Japan has been accepting nurses from Indonesia and the Philippines since
reaching an EPA with both countries in order to make up for the lack of
caregivers in the domestic market.
Under the EPA, those who come to Japan study Japanese and receive training as
nurses or care workers for three or four years at Japanese facilities, and then
need to pass a national exam before formally being accepted as a nurse or care
worker.
But some point out that the medical terms and Chinese characters used in Japan
present great obstacles for such foreign trainees to overcome.
==Kyodo