The Japanese government plans to lift restrictions on foreign nursing workers making home care visits to the elderly as soon as fiscal 2024, the labor ministry has told an expert panel.
The plan comes as Japan attempts to expand the parameters in which foreign laborers can work amid an increasingly older population and shortages of working-age people. Some 40 percent of firms offering such services reported losses in fiscal 2022 as the demographic pressures mount.
The alteration will allow at-home care visits by holders of specified skilled worker visas, technical interns and prospective certified care workers under economic partnership agreements with some countries. Some 45,700 people working in the sector hold one of the three statuses.
Currently, there are a total of 8,600 foreign nationals cleared to make care visits to elderly people. They hold nursing care working visas or are certified care workers under economic partnership agreements.
Care workers visit the homes of elderly people to assist them with bathing, using the toilet, doing the laundry and cleaning, and traveling to medical facilities.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare indicated on March 22 to its expert panel that it intends to make the change, and the general outline of the plan has already been approved.
Concern that foreign care workers may not be able to communicate sufficiently in Japanese with the people they assist have previously limited such visits.
As part of its changes, the ministry has told the expert panel it will urge companies providing such visits to carry out training for communication with elderly clients and on the Japanese way of life.
Other conditions will include having care workers employ digital technology such as tablets in case of emergencies when visiting elderly clients. Providers will also be called on to establish consultation services to prevent harassment of foreign workers.
The range of foreign workers eligible to conduct care visits could be expanded if legal revisions submitted to the current Diet session are passed, with the work expected to be included in the system to replace the current technical trainee program as soon as 2027.
Concern over the sustainability of some businesses in the care visit sector have been stoked by plans to cut the base fees companies can charge from fiscal 2024, after the labor ministry said in November that the sector as a whole has higher profit margins than the average for care industry firms.
Related coverage:
New national standards for Japanese-language schools to start April
Record 3.4 million foreign residents in Japan as work visas rise
More foreign students set to be eligible for Japan government scholarships
