Responding to the Challenges of Super-ageing Societies: A Comparison of Japan and Germany’s Strategies to Procure Healthcare Personnel from Overseas

• In Event: Care Work Migration to Japan: Comparative Lessons and Domestic Realities

Abstract

Ageing populations are posing an unprecedented set of challenges to healthcare service providers in both developed and newly industrializing nations. In developed nations “super-ageing” societies have led to initiatives to procure qualified nurses and care-workers not just within national boundaries, but beyond them, through recruiting from overseas. However, how have non-English speaking nations responding to the dilemma to obtain highly skilled health personnel? This paper introduces offers a comparative analysis of two nations, Japan and Germany, and their policies to source care givers and nurses from the Philippines. Japan has been recruiting nurses through its Japanese-Philippine Economic Partnership (JPEPA) since the mid 2000s. However, recently the German Corporation for international Cooperation, GIZ (Deutsche GesellschaB für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ)) has initiated a new program to recruit and source nurses from the Philippines: the Triple Win Program. This paper examines the policy frameworks of both nations and provides a critical overview of how care needs of ageing populations are responded to both in the short- and long-term.

Author

• Mario Lopez, Kyoto University