Thirty-five Indonesians and one Filipino have passed Japan's fiscal 2011 national qualification test to become certified care workers. The Indonesians came to Japan in 2008 and the Filipino in 2009 under Japan's economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with their countries. Despite all being professionally qualified to work as nurses or similar professionals in their home countries, the success rate for the 95 non-Japanese who took the test was just 38 percent compared to the overall success rate of 64 percent. Clearly the Japanese language posed a barrier for foreign participants.

The health and welfare ministry has decided to increase the number of foreign nurses and care workers in Japan at a rate that will not affect the Japanese labor market. Nonetheless, it predicts that in 2025, the number of health care workers and nurses in Japan will fall short by more than 300,000 and 700,000 respectively. The government needs to work out a clear policy how best to facilitate the inclusion of foreign nurses and nursing care workers.

The success rate for people who came to Japan under the EPAs and took a similar test in fiscal 2011 to become nurses was much lower — just 11 percent — because they had to take a much tougher medical knowledge test in Japanese. Such low success rates will further serve to discourage candidates who have come or want to come to Japan to work in the health care industry.