Japan Expects Shortage of 337,000 Care Staff in FY 2025

May 22, 2018

Tokyo- Japan is projected to suffer a shortage of some 337,000 care staff in fiscal 2025, a government estimate showed Monday.

The number of care staff is seen totaling about 2,110,000 if no fresh measures are taken to secure human resources, against the required figure of 2,447,000, according to the welfare ministry estimate.

The sufficiency rate, or the percentage of people actually working as caregivers compared with the needed number, is expected to fall from 94.2 pct in fiscal 2020 to 86.2 pct in fiscal 2025.

By prefecture, Fukushima and Chiba are expected to have the lowest sufficiency rate in fiscal 2025, each at 74.1 pct, followed by Kyoto at 79.3 pct. On the other hand, Yamanashi is seen with the highest sufficiency rate of 96.6 pct.

Shortages of caregivers are expected to be prominent in urban areas, while care demand is expected to rise in Fukushima Prefecture due to the effects of prolonged living as evacuees.

The ministry's forecast is based on projections on nursing-care services in municipalities across Japan.

The number of care staff in fiscal 2016 totaled 1.9 million. Japan will need to secure an additional 547,000 caregivers by fiscal 2025, when all of the country's first baby boomers will be aged 75 or over.

Chronic shortages of care staff are forecast to continue although the ministry has raised caregiver salaries and taken other measures to increase such staff.

The ministry hopes to reduce burdens on care staff by introducing nursing-care robots, improve the treatment of caregivers further and increase the use of foreign workers.

The ministry has carried out pay hikes equivalent to 57,000 yen a month per person in the average salary of caregivers.

It also plans to use part of the additional tax revenue from the planned rise in the consumption tax from 8 pct to 10 pct in October 2019, in order to jack up care worker salaries further. Jiji Press