Japan will start hiring foreign nurses, including Filipinos, through the agreement signed between Japan Philippines and Indonesia. More than 80% both medium or large-sized hospitals are very much interested in employing foreign nurses including Filipinos based on the survey done by the research team at the Kyushu University Asia Center.

The professor of the at University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan, Sadachika Kawaguchi said that they are not expecting the number of hospitals who are interested in hiring foreign nurses. Hospitals that considered hiring of foreign nurses are more than what they expected.

“The high interest among hospitals is not only because they hope to address the shortage of nurses, but rather, many apparently are hoping to revitalize themselves by having foreign nurses on staff,” he said.

Although there are hospitals that are ready to give a new lease of life for hiring foreign nurses, the professor also added that there are some hospitals that are not yet ready to accept foreign nurses due to lack of information about them.

The survey has 1,604 hospitals nationwide with more than 300 beds correspondents and was done in February. Wherein the result shows that among the 1,604 correspondents there are 522 hospitals, or 32.5 percent, submitted valid responses.

The survey results also shows that the hospitals are willing to accept whether the foreign nurse is Indonesian and Filipino who will come to Japan under the EPAs. While there are some 61.9 percent of the hospitals, or 323 hospitals said that they are do not want to hire foreign nurses due to communication problem with the patient, they would have much time to train them and lack of knowledge of the level of their nursing techniques.