JAKARTA (Kyodo) News and e-mail messages from Indonesian nurses working in hospitals and nursing facilities in Japan have encouraged their colleagues to seek similar opportunities.

Dyana, 30, and Endah Trisnawati, 25, are among them. Last Friday, along with 300 other nurses, they took a competency test to qualify for jobs in Japan under the bilateral economic partnership agreement the two countries reached in 2007.

Last year, Trisnawati applied to be among the first batch of Indonesian nurses and caregivers sent to fill staff shortages at medical and nursing facilities in rapidly graying Japan.