Indonesian nurses working hard in Japan

FTV news filmed a report checking up on the Indonesian nurses who arrived in Japan last summer to work in a special program:

The Indonesians spent their first 6 months in Japan studying the language, and they’re now working as nurses at hospitals and care facilities.

They seem to be working very hard and their patients are happy, but the nurses still have to overcome a huge obstacle: passing a Japanese nursing certification exam. Although the one woman in the report is a qualified nurse in Indonesia and has 13 years of working experience, it may be very difficult for her to pass an exam written in Japanese. The nurses are studying hard, taking the notes on the meaning of kanji and Japanese phrases in their exam prep books, but when they take the test they will only have about 1 or 2 minutes to answer each of the 300 questions. When the nurses had their first chance to take the test in February, they were only able to answer 50 of the questions correctly. It seems that the Indonesian nurses’ ability to read and understand kanji will be the deciding factor.

Hospitals that are employing the nurses believe that the current system, which will force nurses to leave Japan if they can’t pass the test within three years, needs to be changed. They worry that the test using kanji may be too difficult, and that they will lose many talented nurses.

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12 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - April 25, 2009 at 9:49 am

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags:

hoihoi

Vietnamese Nurse Working in Japan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MTu81-JBwc
lovely

i also feel the test should contain kanji that the nurses will actually come across in their work instead of the insipid way tests are done in this country. they focus on the obscure and neglect the useful. just the way business is done here. there is nothing more useless than (especially for these nurses) than studying the arcane for the sake of weeding out those without photo-memories.

nigelboy

“there is nothing more useless than (especially for these nurses) than studying the arcane for the sake of weeding out those without photo-memories.”

Still can’t fill out a point card application for nearest supermarket, I see.

Nadrew

I go to Japanese school M-F 4 hrs/day. The pace is quick enough that I find myself frequently spending up to another 4 hrs doing homework and studying. The course will last for 2 years and I can expect to maybe reach the level of 2 kyu. This is the standard course for studying Japanese in Japan. There are hundreds of these schools in Tokyo alone. Mostly Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese students. Anyway, I have always scored very high on tests (around 98th percentile.) I am having significant difficulty learning Japanese. I don’t think these nurses stand a chance. They probably won’t have much time to study because nurses in Japan have a pretty hard schedules (so I’ve heard.) I think these Indonesian nurses are going to be too tired to study much and that is only if they are treated like Japanese. Figure the odds. Japan doesn’t actually have a stellar track record when it comes to the treatment of foreign “trainees.”
JohnPaul

Just think of the dangers may happen for instance an emergency occured and the nurse couldn’t read the medicine needed…

Level3

Then why let gaijin nurses into Japan at all? Surely they can’t read every medicine label right now. So, there is some system already in place to solve this problem, right?

Can we also add that almost every medicine name in Japan is written in katakana (because they were invented abroad) and that these nurses usually have mnay years of experience and ALREADY passed nursing exams in their home country.

It’s pretty clear that this is another example of Japan’s unwritten “3 years and go home gaijin!” rule. So many employers will not allow a gaijin to work longer than 3 years. The longest work visa is 3 years. Is any other worker required to pass a licensing test IN JAPANESE under the threat of losing their visa and being sent home? Especially since Japan NEEDS nurses so badly.

This policy is insane when applied to skilled workers Japan desperately needs. If a nurse is good enough today, why send her home 3 years later if she can’t pass a certain test? Why not let her try again after another year? If the test is so important, why don’t they have to pass the test BEFORE they come to Japan? Why let such a “dangerous” nurse work for 3 years before taking this “important” test?

…ugh, I have to remind myself Japanese people usually don’t understand sarcasm in Egnlish.

The even more sad thing is, at some point ONE of these nurses will make a mistake. It’s inevitable. It won’t matter if their rate of mistakes is far less than the Japanese nurses or not. After the first serious incident, the entire program has a huge chance of being cancelled altogether because the media will obsess over it, no-brain talentos will deabte over how “dangerous” gaijin nurses are, and a bunch of racist old people will bitch and moan that they don’t want a “dangerous” gaijin nurse changing their bedsheets because only Japanese nurses properly understand the Japanese way of changing bedsheets in the Japanese aesthetic to please Japanese patients, who have far superior sensibilities to such things than gaijin in their gaikoku without 4 Japanese seasons.

JohnPaul

I hope Japan won’t let these islam into their country. If Japan is weak like Europe, sooner or later this country will be full of islam who teaches muslims to hate Christians, Jews and non believers of Allah. Save Japan from this pestilence. I love Japanese culture and I don’t want it to be influences like Europe’s been currently “mutating”

Level3

Maybe the female nurses want to come to Japan BECAUSE they don’t like living under Islamic anti-female rules.

Maybe when you get old and a gaijin nurse takes care of you in a hospital, you will realize you’re a hypocrite, at best.

nadrew

Why don’t they front load the Japanese language school? School costs ¥50,000/month. Total cost is around ¥1,200,000 for 2 years. Plus room & board. Not a terribly large amount of money. This is enough language to enter Japanese University. If a nurse can pass the Japanese exam, and works here for 5 years, they should qualify for permanent residence.
btw
Doesn’t JASSO give out scholarships for J-school, and then University to needy 3rd world students? And, of course there are no jobs for these students after they graduate so they mostly return to home.
JohnPaul

Granting your speculations that that female nurses want to come to Japan because they don’t like living under islamic rules. They have this teaching to spread the teachings of islam in a bit more drastic way since they claim that a non-muslim MUST be “reverted” to Islam and they have this law that anyone who denounce Islam is to be disowned even by their families and society and forever be exiled so you could have a picture on how they spread their way of thinking. They will use the word “PEACE” and the pleasures of teaching of having a HAREM way of life to attract innocent recruits to their “spreading” as according to their “Law”. If left unnoticed, soon you will be seeing them dominating Japan thus killing it’s culture like what’s happening in Europe as we speak. I suggest you study more on how they spread their beliefs and how DANGEROUS this is not only to a country’s culture but Faith as well because this is a serious matter that Europe and America are now facing.

We All know that Japanese has a high prospect of preserving their culture. However, If this forceful religion’s concept were to be injected into the people’s minds, They will no longer act patriotic anymore; will follow in accordance to that religion’s belief and abolish any traditions and cultures and act like a cancer that will slowly kill their country’s values.

When I get old and a gaijin will take care of me situation? Not at all, Sure I will be thankful to that gaijin but what I’m saying is we should also protect our country from these people with forceful beliefs and don’t put our country at risk. I strongly advise you to consider the belief of that foreign workers, their activity and how risky they may overtake a country’s culture and identity. to have a more insight of how risky it is, I suggest also you watch [Muslim Demographics: The Islamic Tidal Wave] in you tube

Edward

Seriously…. since when ALL 100% of Indonesian are muslim??
and since when is all muslim are ‘terrorist’?? I’m a christian Indonesian and even being a non-muslim and living in the country as a minority, I could say that your comment is deeply offensive and insensitive. It is this sort of hatred and fear that breeds terrorism and serves as their propaganda machine…

Also assuming that these female nurses are all radical muslim terrorist, how would they go around spreading message of hatred? aren’t they struggling to pass the language test? and aren’t the female is the one being repressed? Seriously there is bigger thing to worry about than spreading racist fearmongering.
http://www.zdwonline.de Haf

Yes, you are a Christian alright.

And a pretty radical one. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that you are almost as radical as those “dangerous muslime people” that you keep writing about. So, do you want to start another holy crusade? The last one initiated by the Christian community was a pretty bloddy one. So much for loving peace and harmony, right?

Indonesian nurses working hard in Japan

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