A Filipino nurse in Japan shed light on the hardships that workers like her experience in the country.
“Grace,” not her real name, said she decided to fly to Japan and work there for career advancement,” South China Morning Post quoted her as saying.
She chose Japan as she heard from different people that the Japanese are “kind and hardworking” and are “very caring when you get to be friends with them.”
Just like any other OFWs, Grace worked long hours and would share her hard-earned money by sending gifts and souvenirs to her home town in Pangasinan.
She was also able to buy a property with her savings.
Her work abroad likewise helped her pay hospital bills and personal loans when her dad was diagnosed with cancer before he eventually succumbed to the disease.
However, Grace said the work in Japan was not a walk in the park.
While she had a good-paying job, she said her work experiences almost made her give up.
“There are patients who have severe dementia who sometimes could hurt you. I experienced being spat on, peed on and even held feces [accidentally but with bare hands] … I got kicked, spanked, my hair pulled, and I was also bad-mouthed. This is just a normal scene inside the care-giving facility,” she said.
Aside from that, she also had to undergo several training and learn the language at the same time.
Nevertheless, despite the hardships that workers like Grace go through, the demand for Filipino nurses in Japan is still high.
Just a week ago, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) announced that Japan is looking for nurses and care workers.
A new visa program was also launched in April that will open more job opportunities to foreign skilled and highly skilled workers under the Technical Internship Training Programme.
Because of this, Japan’s envoy to Manila, Koji Haneda, said “more than 50,000 workers from the Philippines will come to work in Japan with this new work permit by 2025.”
