This month, Indonesian and Filipino nurse candidates under the bilateral Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will join their fellow Japanese counterparts in sitting for the national nursing examination.
The national exam has been widely criticized as a major stumbling block in securing the prospect for EPA candidates to work permanently in Japan as accredited nurses. The critics charged that the low passing rate (11.3 percent and 9.6 percent in 2012 and 2013 respectively) is due mainly to the language barrier. Some even called for the exam to be administered in English or other languages.
Due to external pressures, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare responded by lengthening the time of the exam for EPA candidates and affixing hiragana to kanji characters to lessen the burden of memorization.