"CEAC Commentary" introduces news analyses andopinions in Japan on the concept of an East Asian
Community, but they do not represent the views ofCEAC as an institution.

April 27, 2010

Bureaucracy behind the One Percent Pass Rateof Foreign Nurses
By IRIYAMA Akira

254 applicants from Indonesia and Philippines who have visited Japan
under Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) sat for Japan’s nursing qualification
exam. And only three have passed. Given that the pass rate of the exam of foreign
applicants was only one percent whereas the overall pass rate of the Japaneseapplicants is above 90 percent, it is quite clear that the language used in the exam
poses a huge barrier to foreign applicants. They have reportedly taken only six
months of language training before coming to Japan and then have been left toimprove their language skills on their own beside their daily working experience inJapanese hospitals. They are required to pass the test within three years of stay inJapan. Otherwise, they must return home. Things could not have been more wrong.
With the advent of the aging society, apprehensions about shortfalls ofnurses and caregivers are being voiced. It is quite uncharacteristic of the government,
which is supposed to protect the lives of its citizens, to leave untouched serious
capacity shortage of nursery school, while concerns of rapid aging and low birthrate
are being raised. In short, the government is only good at mouthing empty slogans
and rhetoric and is unwilling to make sincere efforts to put them into practice. Thus
it would end up leaving the entire tasks to bureaucrats. That is what is behind the one
percent pass rate of foreign nurses.
Most of the foreign applicants already possess nursing qualifications in theirown countries. Then, it is obvious that their Japanese language skill matters. It does
not take a capable government official to understand that nursing requires exquisite
language skill. While it is quite doubtful whether foreigners can master even thebasic spoken Japanese within a year or two, those foreign nurses are required to be
familiar with medical terms and acquire communicative skills so that they can tell
the nature of pains their patients suffer, whether it is sharp, dull or throbbing. It isquite clear what has to be done to rectify the situation.
Meticulosity in business costs money. And seeking perfection is too
demanding especially to today’s Japan which is on the brink of financial collapse.
However, the worst type of measures to be taken would be to resort to makeshiftsettlement, just as in the case of the ongoing introduction of foreign nurses to Japan.
1Money has been spent, but it is good for nobody. Coming under pressure of theIndonesian government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan overrides theresistance of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan and proceeds toconclude an EPA with Indonesia. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare quite
reluctantly undertakes the task of implementing concrete measures. True, the fieldhas been ploughed but the seeds have been forgotten. It is a project sizably financed
from the government fund but is to the satisfaction of nobody involved (except those
three who passed the exam, probably). It would be far more important to bring it all
down to earth than to mouth such empty slogans as "opening up the bureaucracy" or"opening up our future." That is what true leadership is supposed to be.
(This is the English translation of an article written by Mr. IRIYAMA Akira, Guest
Professor of Cyber University, and Executive Research Advisor of International
Development Center of Japan, which originally appeared on the BBS “Hyakka-Somei” ofCEAC on March 30, 2010.)

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