Japan’s foreign workers face a new post-COVID landscape

Once a week in a classroom with a view of the Tokyo Skytree, Filipino nurses study in a relaxed atmosphere. Under a initiative Led by the voluntary organization Abott Kamai, the students learn about nursing from healthcare facility workers, study Japanese with language teaching specialists and engage in friendly conversation with retirees.

But this study group is responding to an urgent need: as part of the social worker crisis felt by institutions across Japan – a crisis caused by Japan’s declining population, with young workers avoiding blue-collar jobs and the coronavirus pandemic – thousands of Filipino workers struggle to pass the Japanese national exam. nursing certificate. Certification comes with a longer-term stable visa and a higher salary. The price is hard, often thankless work in the midst of a deadly, seemingly endless pandemic.