The first nursing care workers from Myanmar to participate in Japan's foreign trainee program arrived at New Chitose Airport near Sapporo on Monday, amid expectations that the Southeast Asian country will provide much-needed workers.

The training program for foreign nationals began in 1993 with the stated aim of transferring various skills to developing countries. But it has also helped create a supply of cheap labor to Japan as the country struggles with worker shortages due to its graying population and plummeting birth rate.

The three workers, all women in their 20s, will spend three years gaining experience at Sapporo-based Sakura Community Service Co., according to an official at the firm's affiliate in Yangon.