By AYAMI KO/ Staff Writer
June 20, 2024 at 18:35 JST
A welfare ministry committee is turning to non-Japanese workers to engage in care services. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
A committee of experts from the welfare ministry aims to allow more non-Japanese to join the home-care industry to counter the current shortage of caregivers.
In a meeting on June 19, the committee compiled a plan detailing how work restrictions would be eased to allow more caretakers.
Home-care services typically assign one worker per person.
The plan states that technical intern trainees will be able to work in this field if they meet certain requirements, such as completing training programs.
More specifically, the decision would allow an expansion of foreign technical trainees and specified skilled workers as well as prospective Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) care workers who are not yet certified. All three could also gain employment under the condition of completing a home-care introduction course in advance.
Implementation could begin as early as the 2025 fiscal year, which will start on April 1 next year.
According to the welfare ministry, there were 15,909 technical trainees studying nursing care as of March and 31,453 specified skilled workers as of February.
Currently, foreign individuals who want to work in home care must either be those who hold a nursing care visa and be certified as a care worker, or come to Japan under the EPA system and already hold an EPA caregiver qualification.
The sticky reality is that business owners in home-care services often face difficulties in securing sufficient training and establishing support systems for employees.
Based on this, non-Japanese technical trainees and individuals with "specified skilled worker" visas were unable to apply for these positions.
The committee will require business owners to explain the training background of new international workers to their assigned service users and their families.
It also asked business owners to create a working environment where any potential qualms over noncertified caregivers can be addressed immediately.
The easing of restrictions is expected to increase the number of non-Japanese workers who engage in home care services.
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