Japan taps foreign nurses in labor squeeze

Wall Street Journal (subscription required), May 23, 2008

Japan has begun recruiting hundreds of nurses and caregivers from Indonesia to work in the nation's hospitals and nursing homes, where there's a severe labor shortage. Tokyo is also preparing for similar arrangements with nations such as the Philippines and Thailand as part of broader bilateral economic-partnership agreements. Japan is striving to figure out how to care for its growing population of elderly as the number of young workers who can support them is dwindling.