How to become a Nurse
Supports people being treated for illness or injury, people who need care and people living with physical or mental health problems, by assisting with medical treatment and caring for them while they recover.
Main tasks
- Assisting doctors with examinations, tests, operations and other treatments
- Finding out outpatients' symptoms and concerns in advance to help the doctor diagnose
- Deciding the order in which patients see the doctor based on how serious and urgent their condition is, for example when there are many casualties (triage)
- Recording and organising patients' treatment and progress in their medical records
- Watching patients' colour and the affected area to check their health and symptoms
- Measuring patients' temperature, pulse and blood pressure to check their health and symptoms
- Applying medicines, giving injections and inhalations, suctioning and setting up drips as the doctor directs
- Setting up dialysis circuits
- Taking samples such as blood and urine from patients for testing
- Teaching patients how to take their medicine and what to watch out for
- Working with doctors to prepare clinical pathways (treatment plans)
- Making care plans for patients in hospital
- Giving daily care to patients in hospital, such as helping with medicine, eating and toileting
- Turning bedridden patients
- Supporting patients' mental and emotional wellbeing
- Holding motivational interviews to encourage patients to change their behaviour
- Teaching patients and visitors how to prevent infection in hospitals and care facilities
- Handing over information on patients and planned tests, treatment and care at shift changes
- Taking part in case conferences
- Managing and recording stock, such as preparing and restocking medical supplies used in treatment
- Preparing wards and treatment rooms and managing instruments, equipment and supplies
- Cleaning used instruments and beds
- Auditing nursing records
- Guiding and teaching other nurses
- Managing the work of medical staff
- Advising people in the community and at schools on hygiene, preventing illness and home nursing
- Visiting patients with home nursing contracts to give set treatments and check their health
- Assisting with doctors' home visits
- Providing palliative care, hospice care and end-of-life care
- Assisting workplace doctors
Workers in this job say vocational college (senmon gakko) or university is common. From job tag's survey of people in each job, who could give several answers. It shows what workers see as common, not how many workers hold each level.
How to become one
You can attend a five-year combined nurse training school after junior high school, or after high school complete four or three years of specialist study at a nursing university, nursing tanki daigaku (junior college) or nurse training school (such as a nursing senmon gakko, or vocational college). You must then pass the national exam to become a registered nurse. As well as lectures in basic and specialist subjects, schools teach practical skills for caring for patients and assisting with treatment, and students do placements not only in medical facilities but also in care and welfare facilities and home nursing stations. Registered nurses can then complete at least one more year of specialist study to become eligible for the national exams for public health nurse or midwife. Assistant nurses graduate from an assistant nurse school or a nursing high school and receive their licence after passing a prefectural exam. The number of assistant nurses is now falling. Professional bodies also run certification schemes for nurses with advanced knowledge and skill in particular areas: certified nurse specialist (14 fields such as cancer nursing and gerontological nursing, as of September 2023), certified nurse (19 fields such as diabetes nursing and wound, ostomy and continence care, as of May 2021) and certified nurse administrator (working to promote community partnerships and improve the quality of local healthcare and nursing). As well as specialist knowledge of medicine and health, basic counselling knowledge and skills are useful for understanding patients properly when dealing with and talking to them.
Ways in
- University: Nursing & Midwifery degrees, Offered by 79 universities in Japan
- Vocational college, junior college, kosen and trade skills tests: Vocational college (専門学校) course: Nursing. 専修学校 courses in 看護 (医療関係) had 24,960 graduates in the 2024 school year, 23,630 of whom started work in a related field (School Basic Survey 2025, table 237). Course matched to the occupation by Peernovo.
- National licence or qualification: Listed by job tag as a qualification related to this job (関連資格): 准看護師. Needed to do this job (Peernovo, from job tag's entry description). English name and classification by Peernovo.
- National licence or qualification: Listed by job tag as a qualification related to this job (関連資格): 助産師. English name and classification by Peernovo.
- National licence or qualification: Listed by job tag as a qualification related to this job (関連資格): 保健師. English name and classification by Peernovo.
- National licence or qualification: Listed by job tag as a qualification related to this job (関連資格): 看護師. Needed to do this job (Peernovo, from job tag's entry description). English name and classification by Peernovo.
Pay · Job openings · AI and this job
- Average annual income: ¥5,247,200 Private sector only: employers with 10 or more staff. Public servants, such as public school teachers and police officers, are not in these figures.
- Monthly base pay (before overtime and bonus): median ¥321,500, and the middle half earn ¥278,800 to ¥376,700 a month.
- 2.05 job openings per applicant at Hello Work (2025). A current demand signal, not a projection. It counts only the jobs and job seekers registered at Hello Work, Japan's public employment offices, and many graduate and professional hires never pass through it.
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Related jobs
Not sure this is for you? Take the 2-minute career quiz
Questions people ask
How do I become a Nurse?
You can attend a five-year combined nurse training school after junior high school, or after high school complete four or three years of specialist study at a nursing university, nursing tanki daigaku (junior college) or nurse training school (such as a nursing senmon gakko, or vocational college). You must then pass the national exam to become a registered nurse. As well as lectures in basic and specialist subjects, schools teach practical skills for caring for patients and assisting with treatment, and students do placements not only in medical facilities but also in care and welfare facilities and home nursing stations. Registered nurses can then complete at least one more year of specialist study to become eligible for the national exams for public health nurse or midwife. Assistant nurses graduate from an assistant nurse school or a nursing high school and receive their licence after passing a prefectural exam. The number of assistant nurses is now falling. Professional bodies also run certification schemes for nurses with advanced knowledge and skill in particular areas: certified nurse specialist (14 fields such as cancer nursing and gerontological nursing, as of September 2023), certified nurse (19 fields such as diabetes nursing and wound, ostomy and continence care, as of May 2021) and certified nurse administrator (working to promote community partnerships and improve the quality of local healthcare and nursing). As well as specialist knowledge of medicine and health, basic counselling knowledge and skills are useful for understanding patients properly when dealing with and talking to them.
How much does a Nurse earn in Japan?
Average annual income in the private sector, bonus included, is ¥5,247,200 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare).
Do you need a degree to become a Nurse?
Usually not. In this job's census occupation group, only 16% of workers are university graduates. Ways in include: Nursing & Midwifery degrees; Vocational college (専門学校) course: Nursing.
Will AI change the work of a Nurse?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Basic Survey on Wage Structure (賃金構造基本統計調査) 2025: earnings by occupation (2025 survey (June 2025 pay, 2024 bonus), published 2026-03-24), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Employment Referrals for General Workers (一般職業紹介状況): Hello Work job-openings-to-applicants ratio by occupation (2025 annual (release of 2026-10-02)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Statistics Bureau of Japan (MIC): 2020 Population Census (令和2年国勢調査) detailed sample tabulation: employed by occupation, sex, age and education (2020 Census (tables 9-1 and 15-1, published 2022-12-27)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- JILPT (職業情報データベース) via MHLW job tag: job tag download data: 解説系 (descriptions, how to become, related qualifications) and 簡易版数値系 (interests, tasks, education) (解説系 ver.7.01 (2026-06-04); 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00 (2026-03-17)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 解説系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_description_7_01.xlsx）ver.7.01 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 簡易版数値系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_numeric_7_00.xlsx）ver.7.00 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成
Sources: JILPT Occupational Information Database download data via job tag (解説系 ver.7.01 and 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00, downloaded 4 October 2026), processed by Peernovo; MHLW, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025; Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2020 Population Census; MEXT, School Basic Survey 2025; MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers (Hello Work statistics). Figures processed by Peernovo. English job names, translations and the matching of jobs to statistical groups, schools and degree fields by Peernovo.
Updated 4 October 2026