May 20 04:12 AM
MANILA, May 20 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Philippine nurses accepted this year to train in Japan under the two countries' economic partnership agreement on Friday completed a two-month preparatory training course in Japanese language and culture implemented for the first time since Manila began sending health workers to Japan in 2009.
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration chief Carlos Cao, Jr. said the course, introduced to help Filipinos pass the Japanese licensure exam, was a success.
"You did it very, very well," Akio Isomata, minister for economic affairs at the Japanese Embassy, told the candidate nurses during the closing and send-off ceremony for them on Friday morning.
In her speech given on behalf of her fellow trainees, Jourenmei Melo, 28, spoke proudly of learning 122 kanji characters and being able now to spell their names, read sentences, and converse with others in Japanese.
"At first, it was very hard. But I've set my goals. I'm going to work there, so I should know (the Japanese language). I really should strive to work hard to learn it and love it because, every day, I will use it," Melo, who will be assigned to a hospital in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, told Kyodo News after the ceremony.
Masamichi Furuya of the Japan Foundation who oversaw the training said all the candidates "obtained the basic knowledge of Japanese language and culture," which, for him, is "good enough."
The candidate nurses are set to leave for Japan on May 29.
They will first undergo another six months of training in Japanese language and culture before being dispatched to their respective medical facility assignments.
Currently, the same kind of training is being administered to some 60 Filipino caregivers who are set to leave for Japan in July also under the EPA.
The Philippines has already sent over 400 nurses and caregivers to Japan since the EPA took effect in December 2008.