In Language and in Health: Expectations and Realities Regarding the JPEPA/ JLPT-Passer Nurses’ Integration into the Japanese Healthcare Community

Abstract

From 2009 to 2014, Filipino nurses who dreamed of entering Japan and passing the required minimum level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) were given up to six months of language training, through the implementation of the Japan Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). This training, however, had proven not to be enough if one’s aim was to pass the National Board Exam (NBE) as it needed a more rigorous language training in order to sufficiently acquire the required level of proficiency. Similarly, in the case of Vietnam, 12 months of language training had been deemed to be more beneficial than six months JPEPA nurses language training to meet the language proficiency requirement; thus, the JPEPA has increased the period for language training for nurses. However, despite the improvement in the NBE results, a recent trend shows that JPEPA nurses, even the NBE passers, eventually quit their job to return to the Philippines because of their difficulty in fully integrating into the Japanese health community. Two reasons have been cited for the difficulty: (1) only 40% of the JLPT word list is actually used in the NBE, and (2) language used in daily conversations with patients and the medical jargon used among the medical staff are different from those used during the NBE. With this, the Fame Pascua School of International Relations, New Era University Paula Gendrano