Japan reached an accord Friday evening with Indonesia to start accepting hundreds of nurses and nursing-care specialists from the Southeast Asian nation in July.
It will be the first time Japan will accept nursing specialists from overseas on a full-scale basis.
Government sources said earlier Japan would accept 1,000 nurses and nursing-care specialists from Indonesia over the next two years.
The Diet approved a bilateral economic partnership agreement to that effect in the House of Councilors earlier in the day.
Negotiators from the two countries were in talks Friday in Jakarta to hammer out the specifics. During the process, the Indonesian side expressed dissatisfaction with a stipulation that Indonesian nurses be treated as assistants until they pass Japan's official nursing examination.
Under the agreement signed last August, the Japanese government will arrange to accept 600 nurses and 400 caregivers from Indonesia over the next two years, with a total of 500 accepted each year.
If everything goes smoothly, the government will look to start recruiting candidates both in Japan and Indonesia as early as next week, as well as Japanese medical or care-giving facilities interested in accepting them.
In the first six months, candidates will receive Japanese-language training and work as caregivers or assistant nurses at hospitals or nursing homes for the elderly.
If the nursing-care workers and nurses pass national exams within three and four years, respectively, they will be allowed to stay in Japan. If not, they will have to leave.
Under the economic partnership agreement, Indonesia is expected to lift import tariffs on Japanese imports, including automobiles, while Japan is to give up tariffs on industrial products, forest products and shrimp from Indonesia, as soon as the agreement comes into force.
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