Japan grants one-year extension for Filipino nurses and caregivers

The Japanese government has decided to extend work visas with an additional year to Filipino and Indonesian nurses and caregivers.  The additional year will enable them to further their training and retake their qualification exams to work in Japan.  This decision is aimed at giving potential nurses and caregivers a better chance of passing their exams and securing permission to work in the profession.  

This third extension will affect 93 nurses and caregivers from Indonesia who arrived in Japan in 2012 and 300 Filipino and Indonesian candidate nurses and caregivers who arrived in 2013.  This move will benefit those who failed the exams but were able to meet certain conditions such as having a relatively good scores in the last qualifying exams they took. The low passing rates has been due to the language barrier.   

New candidates arriving will take language lessons for six months as well as on-the-job training. Candidate nurses are given three chances to take the exams, but caregivers are given only one  This extension will make it possible for prospective nurses to sit the text four times and caregivers twice. 

Japanese Consul General Maria Teresa Taguiang has advised Filipinos to learn how to speak and read Nihonggo in order to look for employment in Japan as the demand for English teachers and caregivers are high. 

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