My name is Okawa, Managing Director of Excellent Care System.

In addition to playing a central role in the management of the company, I am currently the manager of the Excellent International Project (EIP), which promotes the employment of foreign nationals.

Let me talk a little about our company's employment of foreign nationals.

Our first visit to a foreign country was in 2016. We visited Cebu, Philippines, to inspect local universities, sending institutions, and nursing homes.
The following is the review of our visit at that time. (What I heard on site, some may be incorrect.)

• Infrastructure investment is 17.5 trillion yen, double the average of the past 50 years.
• GDP growth rate of 5.80% is the third highest among developing countries in Asia after Myanmar (8.5%) and Vietnam (6.5%).
• The average age of the population is 23 years old, making it one of the youngest countries in Asia.
  
• Some young people do not speak English due to low percentage of people attending schools. In addition, most young people are unable to find jobs, and half of the 650,000 college graduates are unemployed.

The average age in Japan at that time was 46 years old, so I remember being astonished that the Philippines was half the age of Japan. When we visited the Philippines, I had the impression that there were many young couples everywhere and that there were development works going on everywhere. The heat emitted by the city is completely different from that of Japan, and I felt that Asia is growing tremendously.

In 2017, we visited Vietnam to inspect sending institutions and nursing homes, and I remember feeling the same enthusiasm for the country as I did for the Philippines.

From there, we have been gradually hiring foreign nationals living in Japan, and in 2019 we welcomed our first employee from overseas to our company. She is a Japanese-American from the Philippines. She has a very serious personality, and although she could barely speak Japanese at the time, she has improved dramatically and her Japanese level has been enhanced considerably. She is now retired and an English teacher, but we still have a good relationship.

We did not notice this at first because the first person we welcomed had steadily improved her Japanese language skills and adapted to the Japanese environment, but later, after welcoming a Japanese descendant from the Philippines and a technical intern from China, we realized a fact. To wit: That when welcoming foreign nationals, do not leave it up to the facility alone.

Learning the job was carefully followed up by the facility staff under the leadership of the facility manager, so in effect, it was a gradual process. However, I still feel that a different approach was needed to improve their Japanese language skills.

We felt it necessary to hire a coordinator within the company to firmly support them, and we have been hiring foreign nationals since 2021 with our coordinator in the company.

Through this process, we believe that, step by step, we are creating an environment where foreign nationals can work peacefully.

In the future, we would like to establish local offices not only in Japan but also overseas, and conduct recruitment activities while operating nursing care facilities locally. We do not want to hire foreign nationals simply as a labor force, but we would like them to acquire care know-how in Japan and continue working in Japan to become managers. Or, for those who want to work outside of Japan, we would like them to spread their wings around the world as significant human resources who have mastered Japanese care.

Our promise to you is to be the company that can help you "maximize your happiness in life" not only while you are employed, but also after you retire.

For a better life.

Thank you for reading until the end.
We wish you all the best of luck.

Managing Director
Fumiya Okawa