Japan Press Weekly

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2016 March 30 - April 5 [LABOR]

Nurses’ excessive workloads cause high turnover rate: JCP Kurabayashi

A government survey shows that more than 60% of nurses in Japan work on night duty under a two-shift work system and that about 60% of them work for more than 16 hours in a single night shift.

The Labor Ministry conducted this kind of survey for the first time in response to the request from Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Kurabayashi Akiko to do so.

Kurabashi at a House of Councilors committee meeting on April 4 pointed out, “Their harsh working conditions are contributing to a high turnover rate among nursing jobs,” and demanded better working conditions for medical workers and for more detailed surveys be carried out.

The data also reveals that nurses work an average of 4.6 night shifts a month under the double-shift system. The JCP legislator said that the number of monthly late night shifts is beyond the limit set by the basic guidelines of the Act on Promotion of Securing Human Resources of Nurses. She stressed the need for improvements.

Labor Minister Shiozaki Yasuhisa in response said, “The survey has increased my understanding of how severe the working conditions of nurses at medical institutions are. The ministry will conduct a questionnaire survey on nurses again this fiscal year.”

Past related articles:
> Nurses put in unpaid overtime work worth 66,000 yen a month on average [March 8, 2016]
> Union survey shows nurses at municipal hospitals are overworked and exhausted [November 19, 2015]
> More than 70% of nurses consider resigning due to chronic fatigue: union survey [February 4, 2014]