Annie Watanabe took part last month in a role-playing exercise with other Filipino students, learning both how to feed a bedridden patient and how to be cared for.
The classroom exercise at Total Care Support Co., a nursing-care school in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, is offered for people certified as second-grade "home helpers" or caregivers.
"Simple communication (in Japanese) is not difficult," said Watanabe, who married a Japanese man 20 years ago. "What is difficult is to explain what kind of nutrition each meal contains, because we don't know much about Japanese food."