Securing Asian Care Workers in the Era of Globalization:

Care Workers Entering Japan under Economic Partnership Agreements

Abstract

Japan, one of the world's fastest-aging societies, now faces the crucial question of how to secure care workers. The Japanese government predicts a labor shortage of 377,000 workers in the care industry by 2025. To address this problem, the government has opened its domestic market to foreign trainees entering Japan under the Technical Intern Training Program to work in care facilities, as well as foreign students entering the country under student visas to obtain national licenses as certified care workers. There are many things to be learned from Japan's experience of accepting foreign care workers, as well as many aspects to discuss in terms of how Japan should prepare to receive incoming foreign care workers in the future.

This article scrutinizes the challenges and issues that have arisen since Japan began to accept foreign care workers under its bilateral Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. This study found that 12.5% of EPA care workers have left Japan, even though they obtained national licenses that allow them to obtain permanent residence. This study found a difference in care expectations, with aging Asian countries using a medical model that represents a doctor-oriented cure. This conflicts with Japan's life model, which stresses a form of care that respects individual lifestyles. It is critical to bridge the gap in care settings between the medical and life models, as well as ensure proper training regarding the life model, not only to encourage foreign care workers to stay longer in Japan, but also to transfer the concept of the life model to the workers' countries of origin, from which many will arrive in the coming decades.