Roughly speaking The shortage of nurses is becoming more serious, with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare estimating a shortage of up to 270,000 nurses. The effective job openings-to-applicants ratio is high at 2.2 to 2.4 times, and has been in a constant state since before the coronavirus pandemic. There are hundreds of thousands of potential nurses, and there is an urgent need to develop a system to support their return to work. Read article