Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Wed, May 23, 2012
Archive Search

Hundreds of Indonesians Fail Japan's Health Worker Exam
Jakarta Globe | February 02, 2012

Share This Page
0
2
0
3
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

DrDez
1:02am Feb 3, 2012

a few years ago I was treated in a hospital in Birmingham (UK) and found it incredibly difficult to understand the Consultant Dr. The resulting misunderstanding lead to a wrong diagnosis and a blooded nose

The point is that language is a very important and people charged with our health need to be spot on

I think this is a bad plan for japan

pakpeter
1:02pm Feb 2, 2012

Australia has an english language test for nurses whose first language isn't english. It is difficult, many people who have graduated as nurses from Australian universities can't pass and therefore can't be registered. Is it a procedure by the nursing board to restrict overseas workers?

shytallnight
11:32am Feb 2, 2012

Unfortunately I am not suprised. Whilst there probably are a few technically competent health works in Indonesia I think a grasp of another language is the least of their problems. Japan has standards, something Indonesia would do well to mirror.

  • Previous
  • 1
  • Next

Indonesian health care workers applying to be nurses in Japan have been failing the entrance exam at an extraordinary rate, according to official statistics. 

The high failure has prompted the Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry to consider modifying the notoriously difficult exams. Non-Japanese applicants may soon face an easier test given in English and Indonesian, and less rigorous Japanese-language requirements, officials said.  

According to ministry statistics, only 15 of the 285 Indonesian candidates made the grade in 2011, which is an improvement from 2010 when just two of the 195 candidates passed. None of the 82 Indonesian applicants passed the test in 2009.

“We’ve had discussions with experts on the topic since last month,” an official in charge of the issue at the health ministry told The Japan Times on Monday. The government has already tried easing the language burden on the non-Japanese candidates by listing pronunciations next to difficult kanji.

Japan, which has a rapidly aging population, has been allowing hundreds of nurses from Indonesia and the Philippines to enter the country to fill a shortage of health care workers. Japan has been relaxing its usually strict immigration controls to meet this demand.

The requirements for Indonesian applicants include a minimum of two years experience at home.

“The only thing they lack is Japanese proficiency — not technical knowledge,” Sachie Shirai, a spokeswoman at Bima Cooperation for Overseas Nurses and Care Workers, told the Japan Times.

Japan allows hundreds of Southeast Asian nurses to work on short-term contracts, and started accepting nurse and caregiver candidates from the Philippines and Indonesia after the countries reached individual economic partnership agreements with Japan.