Some responses to Debito Arudou's March 6 Just Be Cause column, "Japan's revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail":
Having just watched the news that 38 percent of the Indonesian care assistants passed the test at the most recent examination (with the newly added furigana), and that 11 percent of their nursing compatriots passed that more difficult exam, I find Mr. Arudou's claim that these systems are designed to keep them out even more difficult to believe than when I first read the article.
Furthermore, an interview with a care home manager revealed that it cost him about ¥8 million extra to support his two foreign staff over three years while only getting about ¥800,000 from the government for taking them in; it looks like he missed the memo on exploiting them.