Indonesian caregivers in Japan encourage compatriots

Dyana, 30, and Endah Trisnawati, 25, are among them. Last Friday, along with 300 other nurses, they took a competency test to qualify for jobs in Japan under the bilateral economic partnership agreement the two countries reached in 2007.

JAKARTA (Kyodo) News and e-mail messages from Indonesian nurses working in hospitals and nursing facilities in Japan have encouraged their colleagues to seek similar opportunities.

Last year, Trisnawati applied to be among the first batch of Indonesian nurses and caregivers sent to fill staff shortages at medical and nursing facilities in rapidly graying Japan.

Her documents were incomplete and her application was rejected. Disappointed, she had to put off her dream for a while.

Her friend, Asiana, however, was among the 208 Indonesian nurses and caregivers accepted by Japan. She arrived last August and three months later sent a message to Trisnawati urging her to try again.

Trisnawati, who speaks some English and Japanese, said Asiana told her she is very happy living and working in Japan.

"She faces some challenges, particularly cultural and language barriers, but little by little she should be able to adapt to her new environment," Trisnawati said.

Since her childhood, Trisnawati has been obsessed with things Japanese. The nurse, who has worked for 4 1/2 years at an international hospital in Bekasi in the suburbs of Jakarta, loves "manga" (comics) and has always hoped that one day she will be able to visit the country.

News from Japan has also motivated fellow hopeful Dyana to seek work in Japan.

"I heard that our nurses have been welcomed and appreciated by the Japanese people, unlike other Indonesian migrant workers in the Middle East, who have been abused by their employers," she said.

Dyana, who has been working as a nurse at a maternity hospital since 2002, is seeking work in Japan to learn something about the health business and save money to set up her own clinic in Indonesia.

"When I return to Indonesia, I want to apply my experiences and knowledge from Japan to open a clinic here," she said.

During the Friday competency test, Dyana and Trisnawati tried to answer 180 questions in three hours.

Similar tests were also given last week in three provincial capitals — Medan in North Sumatra Province, Pekanbaru in Riau Province and Denpasar in Bali Province.

The test results will be announced Wednesday and interviews with Japanese facilities are expected by the end of next month.

Those who pass the competency tests and navigate other procedures will be included among 792 nurses and caregivers to be sent to Japan around November to work in hospitals and nursing facilities.

Japan has agreed to take in 1,000 nurses and other health workers each from Indonesia and the Philippines under bilateral economic partnership agreements.

Once accepted to work in Japan, the nurses and caregivers will study Japanese for four months in Jakarta and Bali from July and then two months in Japan.

Last year, the first batch of medical workers studied the language for six months in Japan.

It is unclear if Japan will take in more Indonesians beyond the two-year period as the Japanese Nursing Association and the Japan Association of Certified Care Workers have been lobbying the government to prioritize the employment of Japanese workers.

Critics fear accepting more workers from overseas could lead to deterioration in job conditions for Japanese staff, possibly including lower wages।

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090325f2.html

Manga science crammers infatuate students

Study guides illustrated with cute, manga-esque female characters who explain the basics of subjects such as physics, chemistry and mathematics are selling well, giving rise to hopes among educators they will help stem the trend of young people turning away from the sciences।

Some doubt, however, whether such books will really help youngsters become more interested in the subjects।

The main store of the Maruzen bookshop chain in Tokyo's Marunouchi district has on its third-floor shelves a selection of books introducing difficult physics subjects such as the properties of neutrinos and the principles of quantum mechanics।

Visitors are lured to the section by a selection of books with large, colorful illustrations of attractive young girls on their covers।

PHP Interface, a publisher known for its business books, published a study aid in October titled "Genso-shuki--Moete Oboeru Kagaku no Kiso" (The Periodic Table--The Basics of Chemistry Learned through Infatuation)। In the book, attractive manga girls teach the periodic table by personifying the 118 chemical elements.

The company already has published 11 printings of the science crammer, selling a total of 35,000 copies to date।

Fluorine compounds are used for coating frying pans, and in the books the apron-wearing character embodying the element tells readers, "The fluorine coating repels water!"

A 16-year-old high school student from Chiba Prefecture said of the language used in the books, "As well as the drawings, the [characters'] lines also convey the properties of the elements।"

Miyuki Mitsuda, a part-time instructor at Musashi Institute of Technology, was the chief editor of the books। He said he asked the illustrators to try to help readers comprehend the properties of the elements by simply glancing at the drawings of the books.

Kochi cram school operator, Akihito Hamada, 47, said he always has copies at hand in class.
Manga drawings have been used in study books for many years। Hamada said, "The cute illustrations of girls go down particularly well among female middle school students."

A manga book explaining quantum mechanics published by PHP Interface last month has already sold 45,000 copies।

Hiroshi Matsui, a 74-year-old chemistry teacher at a vocational school in Hiroshima Prefecture, said he felt the book "is drawing in children who didn't get a feel for science from textbooks that focus on entrance examinations।"

Ohmsha Ltd।, a long-standing publisher of science and engineering books, has published about 20 books covering subjects such as calculus and Fourier analysis in its "Manga de Wakaru Shirizu" (Understanding through Manga Series). The series also features large front-cover illustrations of girls in maid costumes and other images typical of manga.

The most popular book in the series covers statistics। Maruzen reportedly sells twice as many copies of this book than any other title on the subject.

As Mio Murayama, a 32-year-old sales clerk at Maruzen's Marunouchi store, explained, it is not only the drawings of pretty girls that are helping the books sell।

"Some books barely sell at all," Murayama says। That's because they don't have the content to go with the pictures."

However, Akito Arima, a former education minister and chairman of the Japan Science Foundation, is not wholly convinced of the books' utility।

Arima said, "If [the books] are used by people unfamiliar with science to introduce them to scientific concepts, then I'm in favor of them using this kind of book।"

"People who really want to learn, though, should then study from try specialist books," Arima, 78, अद्देद.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090314TDY03103.htm

Annual language test to turn twice-yearly

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test has long been a recognized way to measure one's Japanese ability.

But it is held only once a year, putting a great deal of pressure on the people taking the test — particularly those tackling the most difficult level — because failure means another full year of studying before they get another chance to prove their language ability.

"It was stressful," Wang Shenming, a 33-year-old इंडस्ट्री analyst in Taipei, said of taking the test's top, or Level 1, version. "I was worried that if I couldn't pass this time, I have to wait for one more year."

But starting in July, people studying the language will have more opportunities to take the proficiency test.

The Japan Foundation, a nonprofit organization specializing in international cultural exchanges, has announced it will hold the test twice a year in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

"It'll be more convenient for the examinees," said a spokeswoman at The Japan Foundation Center for Japanese Language Testing. "Even if examinees fail the test, they can try it again in half a year."

Wang said being able to take the test twice a year will make a big difference. He took the Level 1 exam in Fukuoka in 2003 but failed, so he took it again a year later in Taiwan.

"It they can take the exam twice a year, they will have more chances to pass the exam and not have to waste time when they are ready for the test," he said.

According to the spokeswoman, the Japan Foundation will next year expand the places where the test will be held every six months to some Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. The number of people taking the test is increasing in those countries, she said.

In East and Southeast Asia, most examinees are university students who want to measure their level of Japanese and who think the certificate that goes with a passing grade will be useful when applying for a job. Wang, who used to work at a Taipei branch of Murata Manufacturing Ltd., said having a test certificate is useful when looking for Japan-related employment.

He said he was asked to submit the certificate when he applied at the company.

"If I didn't have the certificate, I probably wouldn't have been interviewed," he said.

The proficiency test's growing popularity around the world has created a problem for the foundation.

People in China have started uploading answers soon after they finish taking the test there.

The examinees apparently jointly recollect written questions on the test and guess the right answers for their reference, but their answers can be viewed by other people who will be taking the test later the same day in different time zones around the world.

"We recognize that there are such Web sites," the spokeswoman said. "We're considering taking measures about it."

Chen Quan, 24, a graduate student who holds the Level 1 certificate, said it is common in China to put answers of public language tests on the Web.

"For example, right after the TOEFL exam, examinees start discussing the answers online," he said.

Chen said he used to worry that some people in different time zones could make use of such Web sites. However, he said he no longer cares about it that much because improving Japanese is more important than scoring higher marks.

"I think we should study for ourselves, not for a grade," he said।

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090312a5.html

Today's College Scene / APU Japan's own city upon a hill

The following is an excerpt from The Yomiuri Shimbun's new series, "Today's College Scene," which visits a different university each week

BEPPU, Oita--Beppu is one of the nation's most famous hot-spring resorts, with steam from the water being apparent throughout the city। But there is more to this city than its fame of old, as it has now become known as the home of a "global village."

About a 40-minute bus ride from the city center, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) sits on a vast hillside that overlooks Beppu Bay and the Kunisaki Peninsula।

When The Yomiuri Shimbun visited APU early last month, it was the last day of finals। In the cafeteria could be found many foreign students, including Md. Asaduzzaman, a 20-year-old sophomore from Bangladesh.

The young Muslim was eating chicken, as his religion forbids him from eating pork। The school canteen offers a number of halal items on its menu for students such as Asaduzzaman, allowing them to eat comfortably within Islamic Law.

Asaduzzaman is among about 2,800 foreign students studying at APU as of November। The institution is currently tied for first place with Waseda University in terms of number of foreign students.

As APU's foreign students come from 87 countries and territories around the world, the cafeteria offers more than 200 items to meet their needs। In addition to dishes suitable for Muslims, there is a wide variety of vegetarian food, as well as kimchi imported directly from South Korea.

"I'd like to apply to my home country the business knowledge that Japan has developed as an economic giant," Asaduzzaman said in fluent Japanese।

Although most courses at APU are available both in Japanese and English, all students are required to study one of the languages intensively for their first two years to develop a high level of communication in both tongues। As a result, students can be found studying at all hours at the campus library.

The university's dormitory houses about 1,200 foreign and Japanese students। One of the residents, Takeya Tsuji, shared with me one particularly interesting episode from his life with people from many different countries.

Last summer, the 20-year-old freshman got to know a student from another Asian country as they had decided to stay at school during the semester break। The two talked with each other regularly, but Tsuji remembers something his friend told him.

"I'd like to see my family, but at the same time I'd rather stay here than go home," the foreign student said with a sad look on his face।

The remark made Tsuji worry about the difficult situations facing the friend's home country। At the same time, however, he was glad his new friend had confided in him.

"I imagine it's pretty hard to find a place like this where you can spend so much time getting to know so many foreign students--APU isn't your typical Japanese university," Tsuji said। Now he has joined a club on the campus to promote awareness about the damage caused by the Agent Orange used by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War.

APU was established in the hope of having "foreign students account for half of the student body।" For the past nine years, the institution has welcomed students from 104 countries and territories. However, the institution says it has been facing increased competition from other foreign schools.

As the university looks outward, it also looks inward, maintaining close ties with the local community, which helped establish the school। APU also has been looking into ways to stimulate the local economy and has presented plans on how to boost tourism to Beppu.

APU students are also engaged in nearly 200 community activities every year। One of the biggest events is the Sento Taisai festival, which the school inaugurated in 2005. As suggested by the name "Sento," a play on words that translates as "the capital of hot springs," students carry a mikoshi portable shrine to visit every one of the city's eight major hot spring districts.

Hirotsugu Hosokawa, 22, served as the head of the organizing committee for the fourth annual Sento Taisai festival, held in November।

"Working with so many people to organize the festival helped me to realize what it is I want to do," the senior said।

Hosokawa will begin working next month at a travel agency in the Kansai region, and is determined to promote Beppu's rich hot springs and hospitality.
===
Profile of Ritsumeikan Asia पैसिफिक University

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University opened in 2000 after then Oita Gov। Morihiko Hiramatsu invited a new higher educational institution to be set up in the prefecture. The public and private sectors contributed to the establishment of the private institution--the Oita prefectural government and the Beppu municipal government donated the land for the campus and a total of 19 billion yen to cover the cost of construction, while the business community donated about 4 billion yen in scholarships for foreign students.

Aiming to foster an internationally-based workforce, APU consists of two schools--the College of Asia Pacific Studies and College of Asia Pacific Management, the latter of which will change its name next month to the College of International Management।

The school currently claims a student body of 5,900 students, 47 percent of whom are foreign students. About half of the faculty is non-Japanese, and includes APU President Monte Cassim, a Sri Lankan, who once studied in Japan.
(Mar। 12, 2009)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20090312TDY14001.htm

After diploma, now to Japan

Eighty-six Universiti Industri Selangor (Unisel) students who are under a special programme with Japan will receive their diplomas from Chancellor Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor today।

The Japanese Associate Degree-Unisel (Jad-Unisel) students will leave for Japan on March 21 to pursue a two-year degree programme।The group is the second batch of students under the programme who completed their diploma engineering courses at Unisel. The three-year courses are conducted in Japanese.Under Jad, Yayasan Pelajaran Mara provides scholarships to Bumiputera students to continue their studies in Japan.The first batch of 75 students have enrolled in 15 Japanese universities, including Kejo University, Kinki University, Meiji University, Tokai University, Tokyo Denki University, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo University of Technology and Waseda University.

Rosmah, wife of the deputy prime minister, is expected to be accompanied at the convocation by Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Deputy Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, Unisel Vice-Chancellor Datuk Dr Rosti Saruwono and Japanese ambassador to Malaysia Masahiko Horie.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Thursday/National/2502805/Article/index_html

Institutional mergers, a revised student loan scheme and more performance-based funding are among changes an OECD review team has called on Japan to make to its tertiary education system.

The recommendations come less than four years after Japan reformed the system to give greater autonomy to the country's more than 4,000 tertiary institutions.But the review team's report published last week says Japan has yet to make the most of those reforms because institutions, including more than 700 universities, have not changed the way they operate and the country's Ministry of Education has yet to establish its role in steering, rather than running, the tertiary education system। "At the institutional level this tendency is exacerbated by the fact that Japanese universities do not yet have a pool of academic administrators with extensive management and financial experience to take on the strategic management of more autonomous and entrepreneurial university institutions," the report says। "The result of all of this is that the rhetoric of change has been accompanied by the reality of conservatism। This is creating a worrying policy vacuum, with an attention to means rather than ends।"The report recommends the momentum of the 2004 reforms should not be lost and there should be a formal evaluation of the reforms after not less than five years. It calls for increased public investment in tertiary education but in return for continuing consolidation of institutions, more performance-based funding, increased diversity in tuition fees and institution revenues, and more efficient management.With Japan's shrinking student population, the report says private tertiary institutions will be forced to merge or downsize and the public sector should also consider "voluntary consolidation". Already, 30% of Japan's private universities and 40% of its junior colleges do not fill their current enrolment caps.The report recommends that universities be permitted greater flexibility in setting tuition fees and that undergraduate courses be permitted to vary much more widely than at present. "In our view this would be a beneficial development since it would encourage differentiation among institutions much more effectively than existing competitive grant schemes, and it would promote some differentiation in the price of courses that is sensitive to instructional costs and returns to schooling. Both of these already exist within the private sector of Japanese higher education."In terms of helping students pay those fees, the report suggests replacing the current mortgage-like student loan system which requires regular set payments, to an income-contingent system along the lines of Australia's higher education contribution scheme. This would require repayment of loans only when the students' income reached a certain level. Japanese universities receive relatively little money from fund-raising and donations and the report recommends universities do more in this area. Tax incentives should be reviewed and universities permitted to invest such funds as they see fit.The OECD also highlights increases in women's participation and employment in tertiary education but notes this has largely been caused by widening job opportunities rather than by particular changes in the tertiary education system. "In a system where only a handful of universities are known to have childcare centres - Tokyo, Ochanomizu, Tsukuba, Nagoya and Tohoku - considerable opportunities for improvement with respect to gender equity remain," it says.The report urges Japan to do more to attract international students and faculty, including provision of more student accommodation. "Given the active recruitment activities of its main competitors, it makes sense for Japan to enter especially the upper end of the international graduate student market in a more direct and effective way.""In spite of the pace and scope of change in recent years, much remains to be done," it concludes.The review was based on information obtained from Japan, including a country visit in 2006, and is the latest in a series of OECD reviews of tertiary education in member nations. It was conducted by University of Liverpool Vice-chancellor and former Higher Education Funding Council for England Chief Executive Sir Howard Newby, OECD analyst Thomas Weko, University of Virginia professor and Dean of the Curry School of Education David Breneman, former President of the Lund Institute of Technology Thomas Johanneson, and University of Oslo professor and Director of the Higher Education Development Association Peter Maassen.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090305191501962

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua)-- China and Japan will launch a bilateral exchange program involving about 1,500 teachers over the next three years, said Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nagasone here Sunday।

He made the remarks while attending a gathering with several Chinese students and teachers, as well as representatives of Japan living in China। It was his last stop before concluding his China visit.

According to Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama, Japan would accept 1,000 Chinese teachers while sending 500 Japanese teachers to China।

As to bilateral exchanges of youth, Kodama said on Saturday that the two sides will work together to implement a youth exchange program involving about 4,000 young people this year.
Other than high-level exchanges between the two countries, people-to-people exchanges were also very important for developing bilateral relations, said Nagasone, who was in China for two days।

The two sides celebrated the "China-Japan Friendly Exchange Year of the Youth" last year।
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/01/content_10923638.htm