Archive for March, 2012

Foreign Caregivers in Japan: 36 Candidates Pass Exam

A Japanese TV news report about 36 foreigners passing Japan’s national qualification examination for caregivers:

Under an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Indonesia, Japan agreed to accept caregiver candidates who would come to the country and work at care facilities while studying for the national exam. This news report follows the progress of one of the Indonesian caregiver candidates, Morina Melina Ross Tambunan.

When they filmed her in 2009, she didn’t understand much Japanese. Now she speaks Japanese quite well. The elderly people at her care facility praise her Japanese language ability and her empathy. It is obvious that she has worked hard since arriving in Japan.

As you might expect, Morina was one of the workers who passed the test! When interviewed about the test result, she says she humbly states that she will continue to study so she can become better at caregiving.

The Yomiuri has some more details on the number of people who passed:

To take the state qualification test, these candidates must work at nursing care facilities in Japan for at least three years. Thus, 95 candidates took the examination for the first time after they fulfilled the conditions to take the test.

A total of 35 applicants from Indonesia and one applicant from the Philippines passed, for a success rate of 37.9 percent. “The percentage was higher than our expectation,” a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry official said.

But it was much lower than the 63.9 percent success rate for all applicants, including Japanese.

It is a very impressive success rate, given the fact that the test is in Japanese.

The Japanese reporter also interviews Japanese caregivers. They say that there is a caregiver shortage in Japan because salaries for caregiving jobs are incredibly low (100,000-110,000 yen a month?!). It is barely enough money for a single person to survive, and supporting a family on that kind of salary would be out of the question. One Japanese caregiver thinks that accepting foreign workers might bring new ideas to the workplace. Another is pessimistic about the idea of using foreigners to make up for the shortage.

Is it a question of allowing more foreign workers to do the caregiving jobs, or doing something that will make the work more attractive to Japanese workers? Or maybe both?

At the end of the report, the news anchors mention one possible problem created by EPA caregiver program. Allowing more foreign caregivers into the country could drive down the already bad salaries for caregivers, driving away more Japanese workers and making the shortage even worse.

Note: This video and blog post are not about foreign nurse candidates. The exam for nurses is much more difficult, and only 4 percent of foreign nurse candidates managed to pass last year’s qualification test and 11% for this year’s test (compared to the 90% pass rate for Japanese who take the nursing exam).

A comment by Tetsugirl in a discussion thread about this issue at Tepido.org has clarified the difference between caregivers and nurses:

In Japan nurses and caregivers are different occupations with different education, licensing requirements, salary scales, etc. The programs to possibly fill these positions with foreigners are naturally separate. But some of the articles I have seen, such as the one in today’s Japan Times, write about both categories in one article in an unclear, muddled fashion.

Different countries have different sustems, but where I come from I think the equivalent of seikangoshi 正看護師 would be RN (registered nurse). These would be the ones that can administer injections etc.
Next would be junkangoshi 准看護師 LPN (licensed practical nurse).

With less requirements for education, medical knowledge, etc would be the kaigo fukushishi 介護福祉士 or caregivers. I have known people who took educational courses for these without any intention of looking for employment, they only wanted to be better able to care for their family members at home.

And Justin Thyme has commented on how most media attention over the last few years focused on nursing candidates instead of caregiver candidates:

The carers dropped out of sight, and the headlines, because they had no exams until this year. After the nurses started to fail the exam in large numbers, the Ministry was understandably concerned about the possibility that caregivers might do as poorly, given that the overall national pass rate for the exam is lower.

The Ministry didn’t want to make any announcements about caregivers until seeing how the first exam went, so that’s another reason why they have a lower public profile. To be honest, given that these initial candidates have now been in Japan since 2008, and are more motivated to pass the test than some Japanese sitters, the 38% success rate is a little disappointing.

The Ministry will consider letting near-miss candidates stay an additional year. This is very likely to happen but there are dissenting views. It would mean allowing candidates to stay in Japan for five years. While not common, it’s possible to get PR in five years and some want reassurance that failed candidates won’t have that route opened to them.

These candidates, both men and women, are also mostly in their early 20s. If the scheme ends up granting a stay of five years, there’s a higher chance that some will form relationships here, and may even get married, which is another route to residency.

Dissenters point out that, of the 27 nursing exam candidates who were granted an additional year to take the exam after failing it three times, only 8 passed on their fourth attempt. They suggest that some more vigorous screening might be necessary before approving any extensions.

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Camera Can “See” Radiation

JAXA and the JAEA have developed a camera that can spot radiation. Here is a video that shows some examples:

The new camera detects gamma rays emitted by radioactive cesium and other substances, and creates a wide range of images of radioactive contamination.

The total amount of gamma rays emitted by cesium 137 and 134 are captured in six different colors in an image taken with a wide-angle lens, with red representing the highest and yellow second highest radiation levels.

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Mobile Service to Begin on Tokyo Subways

Mobile carriers will finally be offering service within some of Tokyo’s subway tunnels:

NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and Softbank said in a joint statement that the first section to go live will be a stretch that runs from Shinjuku, a central business and shopping district. EMobile, which mainly offers high-speed data services, is also participating.

Tokyo’s miles of subways, some of which run several stories underground, have long been a rare gap in the city’s blanket cellular coverage. Commuters often scramble to make calls, download their messages, and check train schedules during brief stops at the stations where they get reception.

Exact details for the service area that will become available on March 30th:

• Toei Shinjuku Line: Between Shinjuku station and Kudanshita station.
• Tokyo Metro Namboku Line: Between Hon-Komagome station and Akabane-Iwabuchi station

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, they plan to expand service areas to include the rest of Tokyo’s subway lines by the end of the year (excluding part of the Toei Oedo Line).

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Chimpanzee Plays Basketball

Ken Shimura teaches Pan-kun the chimp how to play some basketball:

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