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As Korea hurtles towards turning into a super-aged society and grapples with rising labor shortages in elder care, a migration coverage knowledgeable urged the federal government to maneuver past short-term fixes and construct a system like Japan’s, one which treats international caregivers as expert professionals somewhat than low-wage, disposable employees.
By 2028, Korea is projected to face a shortfall of roughly 116,000 elder care employees, in accordance with authorities and trade knowledge. With older adults already accounting for greater than one-fifth of the inhabitants — 10.84 million folks, or 21.2 p.c as of 2025 — the nation is firmly turning into a “super-aged” society.
“Even now, the scenario is extraordinarily critical,” Kim Dong-seon, a visiting professor on the Division of Tourism and Wellness at Hankuk College of International Research, instructed The Korea Occasions in a current telephone interview. She recalled visiting the state-run Seoul Nursing Residence, operated by the Nationwide Well being Insurance coverage Service (NHIS), the place greater than 1,000 folks have been on the ready listing, but beds nonetheless sat empty.
Hankuk College of International Research professor Kim Dong-seon / Courtesy of Kim Dong-seon
“They can not fill all of the beds as a result of they can’t recruit sufficient care employees,” the professor defined. “Legally, services should meet the required staffing ratio of two.1 residents per caregiver earlier than they will admit extra folks. So on paper we speak about a scarcity of 116,000 by 2028, however on the bottom, operators already really feel the disaster day by day.”
Kim led a brand new research on international caregivers in Japanese elder care services, printed within the Korean Journal of Immigration Coverage and Administration. Primarily based on in-depth interviews with 13 stakeholders — together with employees from Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar, in addition to facility managers, native officers and labor brokers — the research exhibits how international caregivers initially wrestle however steadily adapt and advance when supported by a robust system.
Japan’s expertise
Kim’s staff discovered that many international employees in Japanese nursing houses initially confronted intense homesickness, language limitations and cultural misunderstandings. Native governments and services stepped in to bridge these gaps. In Sendai, for instance, the town helped pay for housing and settlement prices, whereas matching international employees with care services. Companies and employers provided counseling on work, housing and private points, in addition to emotional help.
Crucially, a number of actors rallied round a shared purpose: serving to international employees earn the nationally acknowledged care employee credential or “kaigo fukushi-shi.” Amenities lined examination charges, organized research teams and inspired employees to make use of off-duty hours to arrange, whereas senior Japanese care employees tutored their international colleagues.
The payoff has been tangible. In a single native survey cited by Kim’s paper, 69.8 p.c of respondents stated international care employees supplied better-quality companies than their Japanese counterparts, whereas 54.1 p.c reported no explicit issues speaking. Some 78.9 p.c of services that had employed international employees they meant to maintain recruiting them, suggesting their position will proceed to develop.
Separate authorities and trade knowledge indicated there are tens of 1000’s of international employees in Japan’s nursing care sector through Financial Partnership Settlement (EPA) applications and the Specified Expert Employee visa, with over 43,000 below the “nursing care” class alone as of the top of 2024.
“Japan began from a really skeptical place,” Kim stated, recalling interviews carried out with Japanese operators in 2016 and 2017. “Folks stated, ‘This gained’t work. The language is simply too onerous. The examination is unimaginable.’ However once I went again final yr for follow-up interviews, I heard again and again the satisfaction was very excessive.”
Facility managers instructed her they’d somewhat shoulder increased prices to safe international caregivers than depart rooms empty as a result of they may not rent anybody in any respect.
“As soon as employment stabilized, operations stabilized. As operations stabilized, the burden on employees eased and the standard of care really improved,” Kim stated.
A senior resident and her caregiver look out the window at an aged nursing dwelling in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 16, 2025. Korea Occasions photograph by Ha Sang-yun
Rocky begin
Korea has solely simply begun to experiment with international labor within the elder care sector, and the early steps have been fraught.
In 2024 and 2025, the federal government moved to formalize pathways for international elder care employees by creating the E-7-2 caregiver visa, which permits educated paraprofessionals to work in designated long-term care establishments at or above the minimal wage, with a tightly managed quota. To feed the pipeline, the federal government additionally designated 24 universities and schools throughout the nation to run devoted caregiver diploma applications for international college students, combining Korean language training with sensible coaching in geriatric care below a two-year pilot scheme beginning in 2026.
Kim argued that bringing in international elder care employees is now “not a selection however a necessity” for Korea, echoing tendencies in different getting old societies the place as much as 20 p.c of the care workforce is foreign-born. However she pressured that merely importing employees into the prevailing system — characterised by low pay, heavy workloads and a inflexible, rules-driven care tradition — will solely provide a brief patch.
Korea’s present care aide qualification will be obtained after 340 hours of coaching, with little in the best way of structured profession development, even for many who have labored within the discipline for a decade or extra. “There may be nearly no recognition of experience,” Kim stated. “The prevailing mindset is, ‘Why would elder care require skilled expertise?’”
A care employee wipes away tears whereas testifying about office abuse throughout a press convention on the Nationwide Human Rights Fee of Korea in Seoul, on this file photograph from April 27, 2021. The employee alleged that she was fired after defending herself in opposition to verbal abuse from a resident, solely to be reported for elder abuse. Korea Occasions file
The professor stated Korea ought to use the deliberate inflow of international employees to improve the career for everybody. That may imply creating specialised curricula and educating supplies for abroad recruits, increasing degree-level or superior vocational coaching in geriatric care and overhauling the certification system into tiered licenses linked to expertise, expertise and pay.
“Whether or not they’re Korean or international, as soon as employees attain a sure degree of ability and information, that ought to be formally acknowledged and mirrored of their profession and wages,” she stated.
Kim additionally referred to as for a cultural shift inside long-term care services.
Below Korea’s single-payer long-term care insurance coverage system, operators are tightly sure to detailed laws and analysis standards set by the NHIS. That has created what she describes as a risk-averse, paperwork-heavy setting the place avoiding sanctions for elder abuse can overshadow the constructive purpose of supporting residents’ dignity and autonomy.
“The purpose can’t simply be ‘not committing elder abuse,’” she stated. “The purpose must be serving to older folks dwell as humanely and independently as attainable. After we usher in international care employees, we’re bringing one other weak group into this method. If the tradition doesn’t change — to 1 that values respect, persistence and forgiveness for errors — each residents and employees will endure.”
Senior residents obtain rehabilitation remedy at an aged care dwelling in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 16, 2025. Korea Occasions photograph by Ha Sang-yun
Japan’s mannequin, Korea’s strategy
For Kim, Japan affords a sensible street map somewhat than an ideal mannequin. Korea, she stated, ought to empower care services to play a way more energetic position in recruitment and coaching, as some bigger operators are already trying to construct their very own abroad language colleges and partnerships. The state, in the meantime, should coordinate visa, labor and social insurance policies throughout ministries in order that international caregivers can pursue secure, long-term careers as an alternative of biking out and in as a brief workforce.
Above all, wages and dealing circumstances should enhance for the plan to be sustainable, the professor highlighted.
“If pay ranges and workloads don’t change, international caregivers will solely function a short-term bandage,” she stated. “We have to design a system the place they will develop as professionals and select to remain — and the place Korean society sees elder care itself as expert, important work price investing in.”
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