How to become a Nursing Assistant

Also called: Nursing aide, Healthcare assistant, Nursing helper

Works as part of the nursing team, doing support tasks that do not need a nurse's professional judgement, under the direction of nurses.

Main tasks

• Washing and disinfecting medical instruments to get ready for appointments
• Changing the sheets on examination beds
• Setting out and putting away the equipment and instruments needed for examinations
• Preparing, sorting and restocking the forms needed for tests and treatments
• Carrying medicines, prescriptions and other documents where they are needed
• Handing out hospital gowns and test gowns to patients
• Watching patients for changes in their condition
• Cleaning and tidying the area around beds on the wards
• Making beds and changing sheets on the wards
• Giving patients full or partial bed baths
• Helping patients wash their hair, shower, bathe or wash parts of the body
• Changing patients' nightwear and nappies
• Serving meals to patients and clearing them away
• Helping patients eat
• Helping patients go to the toilet (toilet, portable toilet, bedpan, urinal)
• Turning patients in bed to prevent bedsores
• Helping patients with rehabilitation and occupational therapy
• Helping patients get to and through their tests
• Helping patients move around and taking them where they need to go, including arranging and pushing wheelchairs
• Looking after patients with dementia
• Checking in outpatients at reception
• Helping patients take their medicines
• Setting up and clearing away for dialysis
• Getting ready for operations
• Carrying out simple tests
• Explaining what is needed to patients, collecting samples and taking them to the laboratory
• Helping care for a patient's body after they die

Workers in this job say high school 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

No particular education or qualification is required to start. After being hired, you do the work under the direction of nurses. Some hospitals now offer internships so you can try the job before joining. Some nursing assistants, after working with patients, decide they want more specialist skills and go on to train for a nursing qualification. You need good communication skills to talk easily with patients. A sense of ethics is also needed when working in healthcare.

Ways in

• Vocational college, junior college, kosen and trade skills tests: Junior college (短期大学) programme. 19% of workers surveyed by job tag say junior college graduates are common in this job. In March 2025, 3,043 junior college graduates started work in service jobs (35% 家政, 27% 社会) (School Basic Survey 2025, table 103).
• National licence or qualification: Listed by job tag as a qualification related to this job (関連資格): 准看護師. 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. English name and classification by Peernovo.

Pay · Job openings · AI and this job

• Average annual income: ¥3,370,800 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 ¥215,700, and the middle half earn ¥193,400 to ¥247,000 a month.
• 2.99 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.

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Questions people ask

How do I become a Nursing Assistant?

No particular education or qualification is required to start. After being hired, you do the work under the direction of nurses. Some hospitals now offer internships so you can try the job before joining. Some nursing assistants, after working with patients, decide they want more specialist skills and go on to train for a nursing qualification. You need good communication skills to talk easily with patients. A sense of ethics is also needed when working in healthcare.

How much does a Nursing Assistant earn in Japan?

Average annual income in the private sector, bonus included, is ¥3,370,800 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare).

Do you need a degree to become a Nursing Assistant?

Usually not. In this job's census occupation group, only 8% of workers are university graduates. Ways in include: Junior college (短期大学) programme.

Will AI change the work of a Nursing Assistant?

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

• 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
• 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
• 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