The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry plans to require that all nursing-care workers obtain government-designated licenses, according to government sources.

There are some 260,000 care workers nationwide, but only 23,000, or 9.9 percent, have such licenses.

The ministry plans to require the licenses for about 237,000 so-called home-helpers, who provide home nursing care for the elderly and are already in the workforce with home-helper licenses, which are relatively easy to obtain, the sources said.

It will start offering training courses in fiscal 2006 to help such unlicensed workers qualify, the sources said.

The move is part of reforms of the nursing-care insurance system starting next year and aims at standardizing the quality of services provided by care workers by making them obtain top techniques and knowledge in the field.

The ministry also wants to integrate the license in line with negotiations with the Philippines on accepting nurses and nursing-care providers in Japan, analysts say.

The issue is being negotiated as part of a free-trade agreement between the two countries. Japan is demanding that Filipino nurses obtain Japanese licenses to work in Japan, while the Philippines has called for cross-licensing to be permitted.

To become a nursing-care provider, a person must pass a national examination after 1,650 hours at a vocational technical school for nursing care or have worked for three years in the field.