An estimated 2.4 million people nationwide work while taking
care of their elderly family members, and roughly 100,000 are said to leave
their jobs each year when doing both becomes impossible. Ensuring there are
enough nursing care workers — who are in increasing demand with the rapid aging
of the Japanese population — will be important not only for those who require
care but also for the sake of reducing the number of people who give up work to
care of their ailing family members.
According to a 2012 internal affairs ministry survey,
roughly 487,000 people left their jobs over the preceding five years to care
for family members, and only 123,000 of them have since been able to find new
jobs. Women accounted for about 80 percent of the total — an indication that
the burden of caring for aging relatives continues to fall heavily on women
even after the introduction of the public nursing care insurance system. The
number of such people is said to be particularly high among workers in their
50s.
Ahead of the government’s triennial review of the
publicly-set rates on nursing care services, the Finance Ministry has urged
that the rates — which translate into the amount of compensation for the
operators of care businesses — be reduced by 6 percent in fiscal 2015. If
approved, it will mark the first cut since 2006. Reduced rates would enable
cuts to nursing care insurance premiums and to contributions of tax money to
the system.
SOURCE: Japan Times
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