The Japanese government is considering expanding the scope of duties foreign carers can perform to alleviate chronic labor shortages in the nursing care sector, it has been learned.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry plans to review current regulations, including a rule that blocks foreign workers from conducting home visits.
A record 10.3% of new graduate nurses in Japan quit their jobs within a year of employment in fiscal 2021, which ended in March last year, a survey by the Japanese Nursing Association showed.
The turnover rate rose 2.1 percentage points from the previous year, according to the survey that dates back to fiscal 2005.
At a welfare facility for the disabled in Sasebo, 62 people involved were confirmed to be infected.
As of 7 pm on 14 January, the number of people receiving treatment at home in Nagasaki had risen to 33,116.
About 60% of local governments nationwide do not disclose information about fatal accidents reported by nursing homes and other elderly facilities, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.
Speaking at a press conference, Kishida said the government will accelerate the vaccination drive, with about 8 million health care and nursing care workers targeted for fourth shots.
The online survey, conducted by the Japanese Nursing Association on its members last autumn, obtained answers from around 5,100 members, with the response rate standing at 34.0 pct. The average age of respondents came to 41.3 and women accounted for 93.5 pct of all respondents. Of the respondents, 86.6 pct were nurses, while the rest were made up of midwives, public health nurses and others.
The figure, however, falls below the average pay for employees among all industries, at 352,000 yen in 2020.
Three people, including the president of an NPO in Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture, have been arrested again for allegedly cheating disabled people out of their nursing care benefits.
The 36-year-old former employee, was initially arrested on Dec. 8 on suspicion of murdering a different resident, Setsuji Yoshida, then 76, on July 6, 2020, by injecting air into a syringe connected to an intravenous tube attached to his leg, Ibaraki prefectural police served the suspect with the additional warrant.
The government will review the current standard that requires at least one staff member to be assigned to every three residents in a nursing home, and make adjustments around a proposal that would allow one person to handle four residents.
Barrier Free Japan