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March 8, 2012 - Starting July 9, 2012, Japan will implement a new residency management system for mid- to long-term residents.

For some foreign parents who have been separated from their children due to divorce from their Japanese spouses, the expiration of their spousal visa makes matters worse as intervention by immigration officials can easily sever their ties with their kids.

TOKYO —Some 417 foreigners from Indonesia and the Philippines were among 54,270 applicants who sat for the Japan nursing examination held nationwide on Sunday.

The Health, labor and Welfare Ministry plans to allow nursing care facilities to include among their employees foreign trainees from Indonesia and the Philippines who entered Japan under bilateral economic partnership agreements, or EPAs.

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's labor ministry plans to relax rules on the status of foreign trainee caregivers and nurses to allow host facilities to count them as proper staff and claim extra government payments for long-term care services under certain conditions, government sources said Wednesday.

Japan has been sharply criticized in the past by international bodies, including the United Nations, for its treatment of foreign nationals who were illegal residents of the country. Cases have emerged where some detainees, some of whom were detained for over a year, stag

The number of foreign nationals detained by immigration officials for one year or more has dropped significantly since a more flexible approach was adopted in response to harsh criticism of long-term detentions, according to the Justice Ministry.

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Foreign candidates for care workers for the elderly and handicapped on Sunday took the examination to gain the Japanese government-certified license for the first time, alongside Japanese test-takers, the government said.