273 Filipino healthcare workers arrive in Japan+

TOKYO, May 10 Kyodo -
A total of 273 Filipino healthcare workers arrived in Japan on Sunday to
prepare to work in the country under provisions of the free trade agreement
between the Japanese and Philippine governments.
The Philippines is the second country from which Japan has accepted foreign
healthcare workers. Last August, 208 Indonesian workers arrived in Japan as
provided for by the FTA concluded between Tokyo and Jakarta.
The Filipino workers -- 93 nurses and 180 caregivers -- will spend their first
six months in Japan learning the Japanese language and customs at training
facilities in Tokyo, Aichi, Osaka and Hiroshima prefectures, according to a
Japanese foundation in charge.
They are due to begin working at various healthcare facilities including
hospitals and homes for the elderly starting in October or later, the Japan
International Corporation of Welfare Services said.
Another 10 Filipino workers, who have been certified to have acquired
sufficient Japanese language skills, are scheduled to come to Japan later this
month and are set to begin working at healthcare facilities in early June.
In total, Japan will accept up to 1,000 Filipino healthcare workers over the
next two years.
At Narita airport, the Filipino workers emerged wearing protective masks to
guard against the new strain of influenza that originated in Mexico and is
spreading around the world. They then filed into buses provided by their
respective training facilities.
Many of the Filipinos who arrived have been certified as healthcare experts in
the Philippines. If they become qualified under the Japanese certification
system within three to four years, they will be allowed to stay in Japan for
the long term, but if not they will have to return to their home country.
Japan and the Philippines signed their FTA in September 2006 and the Japanese
Diet ratified it later that year. But the Filipino Senate did not approve the
accord until October last year because it was widely criticized as
disadvantageous for the Southeast Asian nation.
==Kyodo