Candidates coming to Japan to work as nurses under Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are motivated by social and economic incentives and have a clear goal of passing the National Nurse Examination (NNE). However, a majority of them are forced to return to their home countries as a result of their failure to pass the exam. This paper clarifies the areas of difficulty experienced by Filipino candidates as well as their approaches to the NNE through the Modified Grounded Theory Approach method (M-GTA).
