Japan to allow foreigners to engage in home care services
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TOKYO, Feb. 6 — The Japanese government Thursday presented to an experts panel a plan to allow foreign nationals to engage in home care services under the country’s specified skilled worker program as part of efforts to alleviate severe labor shortages.
The government also proposed easing regulations so that more foreigners can work in the restaurant industry and at manufacturers of industrial products, which are also struggling with manpower shortages.
The proposals were submitted to the first meeting of the panel to discuss revisions to the country’s programs for accepting foreign workers. The government aims to amend related operational guidelines for each sector based on the immigration control law as early as this spring.
READ: Japan to ease foreign worker rules at hotel eateries
The specified skilled worker program, introduced in 2019, allows foreigners with certain skills to work in more than 10 sectors and stay in the country for the medium to long term.
In the nursing care sector, foreigners currently cannot engage in home care services. They would be allowed to do so if they meet certain conditions, such as receiving training, according to the proposal.
In the restaurant sector, businesses licensed under the entertainment business law are currently excluded from the program. The government plans to allow foreigners to work only at restaurants in hotels and inns.
The government has decided to increase the number of foreigners working at makers of industrial products. As part of necessary preparations, businesses are expected to launch an organization in charge of tasks such as conducting skill evaluation tests for foreign workers.
READ: Foreign workers in Japan mark record high for 12 years in a row
On the same day, the government held a meeting of another experts’ panel to discuss rules for operating a new skill development program for foreigners that will replace the existing technical intern program.
Plans presented at the meeting include one for expanding the number of foreign workers accepted by local companies to prevent the concentration of such workers in urban areas, where wages are high.
The government will also set a cap on fees that foreign workers pay to host agencies in their home countries before coming to Japan. There have been many cases in which foreigners take loans to pay high agency fees.
One idea calls for limiting the fees to the equivalent of two months’ salary they earn in Japan.
Aiming to introduce the new skill development program in fiscal 2027, the government plans to announce ministry ordinances on operational rules by summer this year.
