Nursing, caregiver jobs in Japan seen as a mirage – Malaya 12.02.2006

BY DENNIS GADIL

SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel yesterday said Japan’s stringent policy on the entry of foreign professionals could mean that no Filipino nurses and caregivers would actually get hired as part of an economic partnership agreement between Manila and Tokyo.

"We are supposedly promised that a certain number of nurses and caregivers could go to Japan under the agreement. But now it looks like we won’t get anything but garbage," Pimentel said.

Pimentel said job prospects under the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) have become even bleaker as nursing groups in Japan are strongly objecting to the hiring of Filipino nurses.

He said the Japanese Nursing Association (JNA) has vowed to block the influx of Filipino nurses and caregivers for fear that this may cause a downgrading of employment standards, including a lowering of compensation.

"That seems to be the core of the problem of JPEPA. We are getting less than what we bargained for," he said.

Pimentel said Japanese nurses fear that the entry of their Filipino counterparts might create disadvantages for them, including stiffer competition for available nursing positions.

Under the JPEPA, Tokyo will allow Japanese hospitals to recruit Filipino nurses and caregivers but not more than 400 during the initial year of implementation of the accord, in exchange for the liberalized entry of Japanese goods into the Philippines, including industrial waste.

JPEPA will allow Filipino nurses to stay in Japan up to three years and caregivers up to four years.

Pimentel said the promise of high-paying jobs could become an illusion because Japan has yet to relax its stringent rules on the hiring of foreign workers in the medical and entertainment industry.

Aside from having to learn Nippongo, foreign medical workers are required to undergo training with reputable health institutions, locally or abroad, or seek accreditation from established hospitals.

"I understand the rationale for our nurses to undergo formal training in Nippongo, but we find the other requirements exclusivistic," Pimentel said.

He said the Philippine Nursing Association (PNA) is unhappy over Tokyo’s tight requirements, which would make it difficult for its members to penetrate the Japanese labor market.

In a position paper on the JPEPA, the PNA voiced fears that Filipino nurses may face of discrimination. They will likely be treated as second-class professionals or end up as nursing assistants.

Pimentel said if it turns out that the requirements imposed by Japan are difficult for Filipino health workers to comply with, the treaty sent by Malacañang on Nov. 20 to the Senate might not be ratified.

He asked the Arroyo government why it allowed Japan, under the JPEPA, to export toxic industrial waste. He said it was in violation of the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.

Pimentel said the government’s assurance that the dumping of Japanese toxic waste materials will not be allowed is belied by the text of the JPEPA itself.

Article 29 of the Basic Agreement of JPEPA provides that the following waste products will be granted a preferential tariff rate of zero percent: Ash and residues containing arsenic and mercury; ash and residues from incineration of municipal waste; waste pharmaceuticals; residual products of the chemical or allied industries; municipal waste including used sanitary napkins and used adult diapers; sewage sludge; clinical waste including used bandages and discarded syringes; and worn out clothes, among other things.