NURSING CARE JOBS UP IN JAPAN

Jobs in nursing care are gaining allure as insurance for people in Japan amid worsening prospects in a labor market ravaged by the novel coronavirus pandemic, Kyodo News reported.

The nursing care industry, meanwhile, is hoping the trend will help it cope with one of the worst labor crunches affecting any sector of the Japanese economy, with more than four times as many jobs available as seekers.

But difficult challenges, such as retaining workers and improving their treatment, lie ahead, especially once the pandemic subsides.

Shigeho Iwabuchi, 55, who until recently worked as a professional clown, took up a job at a fee-charging nursing home for the aged in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, in April.

Iwabuchi turned pro at 25 and had since performed at various events in Japan and abroad.

But with the spread of the virus, performing opportunities dried up, prompting him to take the plunge to find employment through a friend in a nursing care job for which he had no prior experience.

Viewed from the entertainment world, nursing care is considered the "ultimate backstage business," Iwabuchi said. But he now recognizes that the service is "extremely important," adding that it has helped him grow on a personal level. Working all day long is tough on him mentally, he said.

However, Iwabuchi, a part-timer without any official qualification as a nursing care worker, is unlikely to get a pay raise anytime soon. "I cannot continue working here at the current wage level," he said.

With calls for his clown gigs increasing recently, Iwabuchi is struggling to manage both jobs.

In the nursing care sector, the ratio of job offers to seekers stood at 4.20 -- 420 job offers for every 100 job seekers -- in 2019, much higher than the all-industry average of 1.45, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Shinko Fukushikai, a social welfare corporation managing the Fujisawa home for the aged, hires workers who have lost jobs because of the pandemic on a short-term basis and accepts those loaned out from non-care companies cutting back on operations.