Japan eases rules on hiring of nurses

Japan has agreed to abandon a proposal to impose a quota-based hiring system for nurses and caregivers from the Philippines.

Manila and Tokyo reached an understanding after the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) rejected the scheme and pushed for demand-based deployment of Filipino health workers.

However, Labor Undersecretary Danilo Cruz said the Philippines has accepted some restrictions that could limit the capacity of training institutions to accept nurses.

"There are still no final results of the negotiations, but there is already a common understanding," he said.

"They have agreed to a non-quota arrangement, but we have accepted some restrictions, probably on the capacity of training institutions to accept a number of nurses, (under) existing migration laws," Cruz said.

He added that the agreement is just part of the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), which must be approved as a whole, but he added there is a specific provision that there would be no quota arrangements on the hiring of nurses, caregivers and other health workers.

"Hopefully it would be okay when Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi arrives here," he said.    

Cruz said under the new agreement, the six-month training process would be conducted in Japan, both for nurses and caregivers.

"But we still have not determined the capacity of the training institutions," he said. "That would be determined in the implementation. They have accepted the responsibility of the training part. They will give it for free."

Japan has yet to determine the initial deployment but assured it would be a continuing one, Cruz said.

Earlier, the DOLE reported that negotiations for the JPEPA ended in a deadlock after the Japanese government refused to alter a provision in the proposed agreement that would have imposed an annual quota on the hiring of foreign nurses.

Japan — just like the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia — is forced to hire foreign nurses because of its ageing population and its own citizens’ lack of interest in taking up nursing as a career.

The continued exodus of medical professionals to Japan has the Japanese nurses’ associations worried they will lose many jobs to their Filipino counterparts.

Several Japanese lawmakers are opposed to the hiring of foreign workers and a Liberal Democratic Party panel on free trade agreements protested the employment of non-Japanese workers because they have insufficient language skills to communicate effectively with Japanese patients.

The Philippines and Thailand have called on Japan to allow more of their workers, especially doctors and nurses, to work in the country.