An elder care provider in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, has hired 10 members of a local soccer team to become nursing care staff, a move that is attracting attention as a way to provide semiprofessional athletes with a stable income and ease the labor shortage in the industry at the same time.
"Let's talk. In what year of Showa were you born?" asks Hiroki Murai, a 22-year-old member of the semipro soccer team Banditonce Kakogawa as he breaks the ice with residents of Futaba no Sato, a care home in the city of Ono run by the Kakogawa-based Hinode Medical & Welfare Group.
As a member of the staff, Murai communicates patiently with elderly residents who tend to have emotional ups and downs, talking with them and taking them for walks. He also engages in tasks that require physical strength, taking residents to the bathroom or helping them go to bed. His colleagues say they depend on him a great deal.