Nurse and Beef Bowl Problems in Japan

The Japanese economy has been on a roll over the past year, growing significantly and enjoying the most rapid rise in consumer prices since I came to Japan. (According to people who are smarter than me, inflation is a sign of a healthy economy, and rising prices indicate Japan’s economic outlook is improving.) But there’s always some bad news waiting to mess things up. With the economy looking up, now it seems there aren’t enough young people to work at restaurant chains like Yoshinoya serving delicious ‘beef bowl’ to hungry patrons. It’s getting so bad that the chain is closing some restaurants, or making stores that were 24 hours close at midnight because it’s impossible to keep them staffed. Japan has a similar problem with nurses and other types of caregivers. Despite the coming wave of elderly who will need care in hospitals, there’s a huge shortage of qualified nurses. A few pilot programs have tried bringing over nurses from Indonesia or the Philippines, but largely ended unsuccessfully, as the law requires nurses to re-take their certification tests to work in Japan, which require advanced Japanese language skills. Eventually Japan is going to have to open its doors to foreigners who will come and do the jobs that need doing, but currently, politicians are dragging their feet to make that happen.

Japan is facing a shortage of workers, including (hot) nurses