International Labor Migration of Health Care Workers in Japan Under the Economic Partnership Agreement: The Case of Indonesian Nurses

Kazumi Murakumo

2017

Abstract

With falling birthrate and depopulation accelerating in Japan, the country relies on international labor in various fields. The Japanese government began to receive Indonesian (2008), Filipino (2009), Vietnamese (2014) nurses, and health care workers under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Meanwhile, many of these candidates cannot pass the national exam and go back to their countries after three years, although they entered Japan as a solution of chronic labor shortage in health care fields. This research demonstrates that there is mismatch between Japanese and Indonesian governmental policies that leads to a consequent loss of opportunities for the nurses. This paper analyses the interviews with two nurses who passed the national examination and reside in Japan and six ex-candidate Indonesian nurses who returned to their country as well as, an interview at the Japan International Corporation of Welfare Services (JICWELS) and Badan Nasional Penempatan dan Perlindungan Tenaga Kerja Indonesia (BNP2TKI). It examines what institutional issues exist under the current Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) system. The collected voices and data reflect the actual situation for both receiver and sender countries to understand both countries’ policy mismatch. As the EPA program and research are still ongoing, we also aimed to find out more on the suitable environment for international labor migrations to enter Japan from the perspective of the EPA sustainability framework.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Murakumo K. (2017). International Labor Migration of Health Care Workers in Japan Under the Economic Partnership Agreement: The Case of Indonesian Nurses.In Proceedings of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Indonesian Health Economics Association - Volume 1: INAHEA, ISBN 978-989-758-335-3, pages 65-72. DOI: 10.5220/0007023900650072

in Bibtex Style

@conference{inahea17,
author={Kazumi Murakumo},
title={International Labor Migration of Health Care Workers in Japan Under the Economic Partnership Agreement: The Case of Indonesian Nurses},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Indonesian Health Economics Association - Volume 1: INAHEA,},
year={2017},
pages={65-72},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0007023900650072},
isbn={978-989-758-335-3},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Indonesian Health Economics Association - Volume 1: INAHEA,
TI - International Labor Migration of Health Care Workers in Japan Under the Economic Partnership Agreement: The Case of Indonesian Nurses
SN - 978-989-758-335-3
AU - Murakumo K.
PY - 2017
SP - 65
EP - 72
DO - 10.5220/0007023900650072