Japan’s elderly care economy offers opportunity for India

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Graduates of nursing and paramedical programs have plenty of opportunities, provided they have sufficient skills in Japanese.

Tokyo: Japan’s $ 40 billion elderly care sector is in dire need of qualified personnel with sufficient Japanese language skills to function effectively. Meanwhile, the anecdotally reported youth unemployment situation in India is worrying. Japan and India are therefore complementary, with Japan in urgent need of personnel and India having qualified personnel of various categories available, but lacking Japanese language skills and appropriate channels to ensure their placement in the economy. Japanese permanently.
The Japanese language is a particularly difficult language to learn, but Indians have shown a great ability to learn any language with time and opportunity. In addition, Indians hold various positions in several countries, including the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Indian nurses work in large numbers in the health sectors of USA, Germany, UAE, etc. Indian doctors are a mainstay of the health systems of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Gulf.
The absence of political risk vis-à-vis India and Japan, given centuries of cooperation, is very reassuring to the Japanese government and industry and there is a widespread belief that there will be no no tensions like that with China. So graduates of nursing and paramedical programs have plenty of opportunities, provided they have sufficient skills in Japanese. India has a surplus of young workers, ready and willing to go abroad. The old arguments of the brain drain versus the brain drain have all gotten rotten. Today, it is essential for young people to have a paid job, wherever they are. Training in the practices of Japanese hospitals and elderly care facilities in order to begin working in Japan will require access to these institutions and facilities. Training in the field in order to obtain certification in the Japanese system, visa, acculturation, language training, accommodation especially for young women, etc. all will need to be organized. Naturally, the Japanese language skills necessary for nurses are high and therefore difficult to acquire de novo from abroad. as scientific terminology, in order to progress smoothly in the value chain. The positions within the Japanese system are broadly comparable to those in the Gulf and Europe in terms of salary scales adjusted for the cost of living.
The problem of aging in Japan is serious. Japan has the highest proportion of elderly citizens of any country in the world, so it is described as a “super-aging” society. About 40% of Japan’s 126 million people are over 60, of which 28% are 65 or over, a staggering number of around 36 million, and 12.5% ​​are 75 or over. Today, 75,000 people aged 100 and over live in Japan. September 20 is celebrated as “Respect for the Elderly Day”, a national holiday.
Over time, India will also experience similar issues related to aging, and Japan presents a unique and interesting case for creating its own dynamic structure. Already, there are around 100 million people in India who categorize themselves as “old” even though they are simply over 60, which is not considered old, from a practical point of view, in many. Many countries. Indeed, in some countries, genuine elderly people may take offense at being categorized in this way.
The Japanese government is considering extending the retirement age to 70 in part to deal with a severe labor shortage. In its favor, a recent study shows that working men and women who do not retire are less likely to suffer from dementia.
Japan is currently the third largest economy in terms of GDP after the United States and China, and its GDP per capita ($ 38,000) far exceeds that of China ($ 9,000). Japan’s demographic dividend, which was in play from 1964, ended in 2004. Japan has a sacred commitment to its world war generation (including those who were children as a result and suffered from the poverty) and beyond to care for them in their twilight years — and the national government heavily reimburses elderly care and hospital services. Japan’s resurrection from the ashes of World War II stunned the world and was a model for countries aspiring to emerge from “underdevelopment.” Today, however, so many jobs go unfilled as Japan truly becomes an aging society. Technology can undoubtedly fill some of the gaps, but only up to a point.
Interestingly, while Japan is largely a Buddhist nation (with a small Christian minority which includes former Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira and current Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Taro Aso) who still express their gratitude for his spirituality originated in India via China and Korea and many deities in Japan are clearly of Indian origin, but with Japanese terminologies. Even deities that are less popular today in India, like Acala / Achala, are worshiped in Japan, in this case as FudÅŒ MyŌŌ – and were first popularized by Indian Buddhist scholars Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra in China. where Japanese monks were studying as early as the 7th century. Therefore, it is no exaggeration today to have skilled Indians who learned the basics of Japan to integrate easily.
And while everyone in Japan remembers Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as one of Japan’s very few Asian allies during WWII, the reality is that little to no immigration to Japan occurred in the aftermath. -war, for reasons such as the constraint of the Japanese language. . Historically, Sindhi traders have helped Japan when faced with various types of boycotts and embargoes prior to World War II, by creating alternative routes for exporting and importing from Japan, which were then under sanctions. international led by the British.
The common heritage and the shared struggle in history is a definite advantage for India and Japan, however, Indians are still slow to seize these enormous employment opportunities, compared to Vietnamese, Chinese, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Nepalese and Koreans. Despite Japan’s claim that it allows the fastest permanent residence cards in the world for certain categories like technicians, there is a stark reality of nearly impossible applications for the aspiring Indian class to overcome Japanese visa hurdles. even when they overcome the language barrier. Young people are asked for three years of active bank account with thousands of rupees on deposit (with no recent bulk deposit from a helpful “aunt”). Credit from Indian banks appears to have dried up to the class aspiring to emigration assistance, while banks in competing countries are cooperating to enable credit so that young people can overcome the financial hurdle of immigration. Japanese visa requirement. The Indian government has leverage in negotiations with Japan since India has consistently recorded a trade deficit with Japan (India imports more from Japan than India exports to Japan) now of around $ 8 billion. In addition, India is a trusted partner with Japan in an effort to keep the Indo-Pacific free and open.
Going back to our topic of the elderly, government reimbursed services are even provided at home, including visits by doctors and nurses. Today, this sector is also facing a crisis and the closure of businesses due to a labor shortage and not a business shortage. In addition, Japan has developed a plethora of amenities to make life easier for the elderly, people with disabilities, and caregivers. For a user-friendly design, few countries can compete, and it is identified as a key differentiator and a basis for the dominance of the Japanese auto sector in India and even much of the world.
Japan has an extensive national licensing system for skilled personnel, elderly care providers, social service providers, mental health counselors, auto mechanics and others to professionalize aspiring class. Structured incentives will be put in place for the use of digital tools for operational efficiency and transparency due to the recent government reform of the reimbursement of national health insurance. The interest on bank loans is generally very low, and it is possible to combine it with generous interest subsidies offered by the government, and many companies enjoy an interest rate of less than 1% for an industry. growing, that is, expanding to a large market like India. Therefore, the same processes, technologies, systems, protocols used to support the aging problem of Japan may become an opportunity for a new industry for further growth related to the aging of the Indian population in the years to come, in s ‘drawing on the young, dynamic population of India today, but in a professionalized way. India’s social structures are transforming and professionalized services will be essential as children and grandchildren all work with no one available to care for the elderly in the home environment. India will certainly be able to create a new economic sector and add to the GDP the need for elderly care and other social services.

Dr Sunil Chacko has degrees in medicine (Kerala), public health (Harvard) and an MBA (Columbia). He was Deputy Director of Harvard Intl University. Commission on Health Research, has served on the Executive Board of the World Bank Group and has been a faculty member in the United States, Canada, Japan and India.

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