June 4, 2026
More than 70% of medical institutions are facing nursing shortages, and 40% have difficulty in fulfilling staff vacancies.
This was revealed by the survey results which the Zenroren-affiliated Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren) released on June 3 at a press conference in the Labor Ministry office building.
The union stressed that in order to secure the necessary number of medical professionals, such as nurses, midwives, and public health nurses, the urgent need now is to improve their wages and working conditions.
In the survey, 75.4% of healthcare facilities said that they are “short staffed” and 52.9% said that the number of nursing staff decreased due to the imbalance between retirees and new employees.
In the same survey, asked about the impacts associated with the shortage of nurses, the most common answer was a “reduction in patient services” (83%) followed by the “occurrence of incidents and accidents” (58%), the “suspension of operational beds” (33%), and a “temporary halt to inpatient admission” (19%).
Iroren Secretary General Yonezawa Akira, as measures to solve staffing shortages, called for raising the state remuneration payment for medical institutions’ services so that healthcare workers’ working conditions including wages will be substantially improved.
This was revealed by the survey results which the Zenroren-affiliated Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren) released on June 3 at a press conference in the Labor Ministry office building.
The union stressed that in order to secure the necessary number of medical professionals, such as nurses, midwives, and public health nurses, the urgent need now is to improve their wages and working conditions.
In the survey, 75.4% of healthcare facilities said that they are “short staffed” and 52.9% said that the number of nursing staff decreased due to the imbalance between retirees and new employees.
In the same survey, asked about the impacts associated with the shortage of nurses, the most common answer was a “reduction in patient services” (83%) followed by the “occurrence of incidents and accidents” (58%), the “suspension of operational beds” (33%), and a “temporary halt to inpatient admission” (19%).
Iroren Secretary General Yonezawa Akira, as measures to solve staffing shortages, called for raising the state remuneration payment for medical institutions’ services so that healthcare workers’ working conditions including wages will be substantially improved.
