Human capital training in the global care chain: migrant caregivers in Japan

A ‘good practice’ of ‘EPA elderly caregiving training programme’ at a facility in Japan, in which foreign qualified nurses are training at nursing home for elderly for passing the Japanese national certificate for elderly caregiving, contains silenced in a governmental program discourse but existing problems. Discourse analysis on the programme guideline is contrasted with a local practice, the research paper shows that deskilling is taking place for fuelling cheap labour force into elderly care sector in Japan, and resolving the labour shortage due to unpopularity of the jobs among the Japanese nationals. Interestingly, the foreign qualified nurses are hired regular basis but the salary ranks start the minimum class equal to the high school graduates of Japan. The given reasons are ‘ethnic penalty’ and ‘linguistic incapability’ which derive from cultural differences. The migrants’ traits in their national characters influence on their measurement of ‘the value of human resources’. Due to the lower wages the migrants owe some risks for becoming precarious existences in a society. The rules and regulations written in the concerning guideline does not protect them, but defines ‘who is more desirable to be employee’. It is notable that even a successful case of policy implementation, it is probable that silenced effects and unconscious malpractice would be found.