September 5, 2024

The Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren) on September 4 held talks with Dietmembers, including Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Kurabayashi Akiko (Upper House), at the House of Representatives members’ office building, calling on them to support the union’s demand for an increase in the state remuneration paid for nursing-care services.

Iroren officer Terada Yu pointed out that with the lowering of the state remuneration paid to home-visit nursing-care institutions for their services, their financial situation has worsened, which produced negative results such as cuts in workers’ wages. Expressing his concern that a record number of nursing-care service operators may go bankrupt, the Iroren officer said, “Japan’s aged care service system is on the brink of collapse.”

A union member pointed out that in some local regions where the number of nursing-care providers has dropped to zero, people in need of nursing-care are deprived of their right to receive necessary services.

Stating that the more rural the area, the faster the pace nursing-care providers give up operating their businesses, JCP Kurabayashi promised to take up the Iroren’s demand in the Diet and expressed her determination to work jointly with the union to push the government to spend more for social welfare services, not for a military buildup.