Nursing the VJEPA to full health

Scores of Vietnamese health professionals could be injected into Japan’s health sector

Movement of natural persons is part of the Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA) signed in December, 2008. The two countries maintained that the nurse and care worker movement clause would be negotiated further since no concensus on this issue was reached at the time of signing the agreement.

According to the agreement, Japan will enter into negotiations with Vietnam under a Sub-Committee on Movement of Natural Persons set up in accordance with the agreement regarding the possible acceptance of Vietnamese qualified nurses and care workers by Japan. The negotiations are regulated to be finished within two years after the entry into force of the VJEPA.

The VJEPA took effect in October, 2009 after being completely ratified by the two countries. The deadline for the two countries to reach commitments for the movement of nurses and care workers must be completed by September, 2011.

Sending Vietnamese healthcare workers to Japan was among the hottest issues that skewed the Economic Partnership Agreement  talks two years ago.

One of the big obstacles was the lack of a national licence granting system for healthcare workers in Vietnam, which is strictly demanded in Japan and many other countries.

Vietnam has 200,000 people working for state-run healthcare bases, including doctors and nurses, but none of them has work permit as defined by Japanese laws.

During talks for the VJEPA, besides agreeing to train and grant licence to Vietnamese nurses, Japan pledged to help Vietnam build a licence system for healthcare workers, including nurses.

According to the agreement, entry and temporary stay shall be granted to a Vietnamese who is a qualified nurse under Japanese laws to be a practicing nursing for one or three years. This may be extended to seven years from the date of obtaining a licence granted by the Japanese side.

In the first round of talks on the movement of persons opened on July 30 in Tokyo, the two sides exchanged information and explained laws and regulations of each other regarding to training and exchanging of workers, particularly nurses and care workers, according to the Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, which has taken a leading role in the negotiations.

The Vietnamese side also stressed the country’s capability to provide young workers for other countries, particularly Japan which was in a high demand for nurses and care workers for Japanese families and hospitals.

In 2010, Japan has targeted to receive about 1,000 training workers from Vietnam, including nurses and care workers. The figures were reported at 600 workers in 2008 and 550 workers in 2007.

The Vietnamese training workers earn between $700-1,000 per person per month in Japan.