Japan will provide English translations in a professional nursing exam to remove a language hurdle for foreign applicants after almost all of them failed the test this year, officials said Wednesday.

By Todd Crowell
Plan to Bring Asian Caregivers into Japan Falters
With the world’s fastest-aging population, Japan has a growing need for nurses and other caregivers to staff its elderly-care facilities. Asian nations have many well-trained nurses and other caregivers who need jobs. The solution: import more nurses and care workers from Southeast Asia to fill gaping [...]

Japan allows hundreds of Southeast Asian nurses to work on short-term contracts, but the health-care workers say the exams they must pass for the right to stay longer are so tough that almost all flunk them.

Thirty-three Filipinos and Indonesians who came to Japan to work as nurses and nursing care workers have returned home after becoming discouraged by their slim prospects of passing the national exams for their professions, it has been learned.

By Madel Sabater - www.mb.com.ph
The Japanese government is mulling further opening its economy to neighboring countries as part of a vision to create an East Asia Community similar to the European Union (EU) which could see the hiring of more non-Japanese nurses.