Sharing care: Gains and challenges

Since 2002 when the JPEPA was first proposed by then Japanese Prime Minister Jun’ichiro Koizumi until its approval by the Philippine Senate in 2008, Filipino nurses and caregivers have been dispatched to hospitals and institutions in Japan both through formal and informal channels.

Three batches have been sent through the formal government channels. However, the total number of dispatched Filipino nurses and caregivers through private, informal channels remain unknown.

The private, informal networks, which preceded the formal channels, have taken various routes: Either hiring the Filipino nurses and caregivers from the Philippines or hiring Filipino caregivers already residing in Japan. Involved in this informal network are, among others, private Japanese NPOs, hospitals, and business organizations with counterparts in the Philippines who have links with Philippine hospitals, Nikkeijin groups or Japanese-controlled health and care-related businesses, among others.

The formal channel started to operate upon the formal Philippine Senate ratification of the JPEPA in 2008 and principally involved the governments of Japan and the Philippines and their authorized coordinators stipulated in the JPEPA’s Article 9 and its Annex. Chapter 9 of the JPEPA entitled Movement of Natural Persons (MNP) provides for the entry, under certain conditions, of “nurses or certified careworkers or related activities, on the basis of a contract with public or private organizations” or “on the basis of admission to public or private training facilities” in Japan.

This particular JPEPA provision facilitated the approval for the entry of Filipino nurses and caregivers, through informal channels, even before the formal 2008 ratification of the JPEPA under certain visa categories different from the “tokutei katsudo or special designated activity” visa extended to the Filipino nurse and caregiver candidates sponsored by the governments of Japan and the Philippines from 2008 until the present.

Initial researches showed more challenges than gains especially for the Filipino nurses and caregivers regardless of whether the route taken was through private or public channels, urgently needing strict monitoring on the part of both the sending and receiving governments to ensure the protection of all stakeholders involved, especially those among the givers and receivers of care.

Initial gains reported include, among others, the acquisition of language and added caregiving skills, the appreciation of learning about the Japanese culture as well as the joy of assisting the Japanese elderly and the joy of receiving support and assistance from their co-workers and institutions.

Challenges, related to deployment and present employment, aside from problems of residence, have been raised by interviewed respondents. The greatest challenge has taken the form of heavy stress daily experienced by the Filipino candidates resulting from the multiple burden of: 1) having to comply with the difficult official goal to learn and master the Japanese language in order to pass the Japanese licensing exams for nurses and caregivers in Japan;2) having to adjust to a new culture and work setting, away from family and home; and , 3) for nurses, the real fear of possibly losing their career as their present work in Japan is not as nurses but as nursing aides.

Several interviewed nurses lamented tearfully how they regretted their decision to sacrifice their nursing careers in favor of what they thought would be easy and ample cash for their work as candidate nurses in Japan. Disallowed to do any nursing procedure as they have not yet passed the Japanese licensing exams in the Japanese language, they tearfully reported that rather than handling thermometers and syringes, they instead are made to carry pail and towels for washing their elderly clients.

Further research and more serious reexamination of the JPEPA provision regarding the dispatch of our nurses and caregivers have to be done to ensure better welfare and protection for both our care and health providers as well as the care and health recipients among the Japanese elderly.

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