Japan eyes incentive for nursing homes to hire foreign trainees

September 7, 2017

TOKYO- Japan's welfare ministry is considering giving elderly nursing homes an incentive to employ foreign trainees that the care sector will start accepting in November, it was learned Wednesday.

At the day's meeting of a subgroup of the Social Security Council, which advises the welfare minister, the ministry said it is considering allowing the elderly care homes covered by the public nursing care insurance program to count foreign trainees as staff, according to officials.

Care home operators are required to have certain numbers of staff per facility. Special homes for elderly people with severe disabilities, for example, need to have at least one full-time nursing or care staff member per three tenants.

If it becomes possible to count foreign trainees as staff, many care home operators are expected to feel encouraged to hire them as the sector suffers from chronic labor shortages.

Foreign trainees under the Technical Intern Training Program can work in Japan for up to five years. Japan took a legislative step last year to allow them to work in the care sector.

The ministry is considering requiring trainees to take two months of training after they arrive in Japan and to work at care homes that receive them for at least six months as conditions for allowing them to be counted as care home staff. Jiji Press