Does Japan really want to accept foreign caregivers?

This question, which has dogged the rapidly graying nation for years, continues to loom over a government program to bring in caregivers under bilateral economic partnership agreements.

Japan opened its doors to foreign care workers in 2008, when, via an EPA with Indonesia, it accepted 104 people to work in the nation's nursing homes to assist the elderly. Subsequent EPAs with the Philippines and Vietnam paved the way for the start in 2009 and 2014, respectively, of similar programs, through which a total of 1,500 caregivers have so far been accepted.