Foreign Nurse working in Japan

I read that you coudn’t work as a foreign nurse in japan because the license wont transfer from the united states but I watched a video where a woman worked as a foreign nurse in Japan as a school nurse in a InternationalSchool

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  1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

    **Foreign Nurse working in Japan**

    I read that you coudn’t work as a foreign nurse in japan because the license wont transfer from the united states but I watched a video where a woman worked as a foreign nurse in Japan as a school nurse in a InternationalSchool

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  2. You have a question in there somewhere?

    You might find a private school that would allow you to work with kids in a nurse capacity, but flip that..

    Would you want someone with a nursing license from Japan, who speaks no English, working as a nurse for your kid(s).

  3. You have to take the test in Japanese. Probably would take five years of study to get to that level.

  4. >…I watched a video where a woman worked as a foreign nurse in Japan as a school nurse in an International School

    That video is basically taking a 1-in-zillion job opportunity at a legit International School and making it sound like an opportunity that anyone could find. Hint: Most “International Schools” in Japan are just daycare diaper-changing stations and the so-called school “nurses” are doing the minimum-wage job of changing diapers.

    As I have posted [before](https://www.reddit.com/r/movingtojapan/comments/ga0cbq/being_a_nurse_in_japan/fox13mg/), to become a nurse in Japan, would require you to do an entire restart of your life. In terms of ROI, it would be easier in terms of time and effort to become an MD in US and live the good life.

    * 1^st : You would have to seriously study Japanese for 1.5+ years to get to N1 level Japanese. N-2 level Japanese could get you provisionally accepted into Japanese nursing school but many foreign provisional students are requested to leave nursing school at the end of six months because of inadequate language skills.

    * 2^nd : You then you can either enroll in a JAPANESE nursing university for four years and earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). Alternatively, to become an LPN you need to attend a junior nursing college for three years, earning an Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN); or study at a nursing training school for three years and obtain a diploma. See: https://www.nurse.or.jp/jna/english/pdf/nursing-in-japan2016.pdf

    * 3^rd : You would have to pass all the lengthy nursing licensing tests in Japanese within the time limits—a super-human task that only 5 foreign nurses succeeded to do 2017. Last year 20 some foreigners past the test but most were from China and already could read hanzi.

    * 4^th : Find a place that would hire a foreigner nurse you would be paid poorly at close to the Japanese average for a MUCH harder job. Also note that Japanese nurses get paid 50~70% less than nurses in the US, routinely are forced to work double shifts (16+ hour days) in large hospitals, and most patient charting is done as unpaid “service” overtime (especially because your speed at writing Japanese will be painfully slow for the first 10 years or so).

    Basically, becoming a Japanese nurse has most of the same problems as: [**Can I be a doctor in Japan?** {r/movingtojapan/wiki/doctor}](https://www.reddit.com/r/movingtojapan/wiki/doctor).

    ____________

    HOWEVER:

    There are a handful of poorly paid nursing jobs for foreign nurses in odd/rare foreigners only medical clinics {which require knowing someone in charge who will let you work as a doctor’s assistant}.

    Another rare example is: There are foreign nurses specializing in burns working in a research projects at university hospitals.

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