Reports that the licensure examination for foreign nurses in Japan will now be given in English is not true. This is the clarification made by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) which has come from a representative of the Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW).

The speculations that the exam will be translated in English stems from the fact that foreign nurses in Japan are having a difficult time passing the licensure examinations in their host country as evident by the extremely low passing rate of previous examinees.

The POEA explained that the MHLW held focus group discussions (FGD) with its stakeholders and they are still studying given recommendations. The said discussions were participated by hospital presidents, professors, officials of nursing schools and  the Institute of Human Language.

The POEA said, "Among the suggestions from the said FGDs were to paraphrase certain difficult words or expressions into easier terms, provide Japanese hiragana characters for certain difficult kanji characters, include the subject and object in the Japanese sentence construction, and annotate special nursing terms and names of diseases in English including internationally recognized abbreviations."

Hiragana and kanji are the writing systems in Japan. Hiragana is used in traditional Japanese words while kanji is ideographs borrowed from Chinese characters.

Earlier reports said that the Labor Department called for an intense language training program, for Filipino nurses and caregivers bound to Japan. The government agency is hoping that this program would help Filipino nurses get a passing mark in the licensure examination given in Japan. Read article: DOLE: Nurses and Caregivers For Japan Should Undergo Intense Language Training.