Filipino Nursing Herald

Perhaps many of the repeat visitors of this blog have been disappointed over the past few weeks largely due to my failure to post new information on my blog. Please accept my apologies. I suppose all bloggers on the Internet have hit some kind of quiet period once or twice or more in their online careers. These past few weeks have taken much away from my time working on my young blog. I hope you would understand my dear friends. Scanning through some of the Web's pages, I found an interesting link: There's a GMAnews report about 21 Filipino nursing students who staged a protest rally earlier in the day to call for equal rights among Japanese nurses and Filipino nurses who could be deployed in Japan once a treaty between Japan and the Philippines becomes ratified. It was a bit confusing to read this piece of news. The news writer says that the student nurses were against the ratification and yet he failed to say exactly why they were against it. The news source (or the person in...

Just got back from a trip, so I haven't been able to update lately. I've got a whole chest-full of new ideas that I plan to write about and I think I just might have the extra time now to write more, so expect better things from this blog. In the meantime, I was surfing the Web for some relevant news that I missed while I was away and here are some of the noteworthy issues that you might also like to look up: Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) Sen. Aquilino Pimentel was quoted in the papers this week saying the controversial JPEPA might be ratified by our Senate. This legislation will, among other things, open up work opportunities for Filipino caregivers and nurses in Japan. Initially the number of workers have been limited to 400, but hopefully this would increase in the future. Australia needs nurses Raul V. Hernandez, honorary consul to Melbourne, said Australia would need 10,000 nurses in the next three years. Philippine doctors leaving as nurses Th...

President Arroyo appealed to local legislators to ratify the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) which would open greater trade exchange between the two countries. The JPEPA calls for the scrapping of import duties for automobiles coming from Japan, while Philippine products exported to Japan will also see reduced taxes, leading to complete removal after several years. More relevant to nurses, the JPEPA would remove the restriction on Filipino nurses and caregivers to work in Japan. Under the pact, about 1,000 nurses and caregivers would be allowed to work in the country every year, but applicants must complete a three-year language and skills training course and pass the Japanese licensure test before being issued a work visa.

The Japanese government is keen on increasing the number of skilled workers immigrating to the country. Faced with an aging population, Japan needs to fill up its dwindling labor pool fast. Although the Japanese government allowed 1,000 nurses to come to work in the country, Philippine legislators failed to approve the plan. One of stumbling block to the plan is the examination that workers must take in the Japanese language. A key economic panel in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration is proposing to increase the number of students allowed in the country as a way of attracting more workers. Read more about this news from Bloomberg.