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Nurses (including assistant nurses)

How to become a Quarantine Officer

Official title: Quarantine Officer (Nurse)

Prevents infectious diseases from entering and spreading in Japan, at airports and seaports with international traffic, by carrying out quarantine checks on people arriving from overseas, trapping and surveying animals that carry disease, and checking hygiene on international ships.

Main tasks

Workers in this job say university or vocational college (senmon gakko) 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

To become a quarantine officer (nurse), you must graduate from a nursing school, gain the national registered nurse qualification and have at least 3 years' clinical experience at a medical institution. You also need a standard driving licence, because you drive official vehicles to move around airports and seaports and to transport patients. Vacancies are posted on the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare website, and also through Hello Work (public employment service) and private job sites for nurses. As well as permanent full-time staff who may be transferred anywhere in the country, fixed-term staff with set workplaces are sometimes recruited. Both are hired as national public servants. Training after joining includes on-the-job training at your quarantine station and about a week of induction training run by the Ministry's head office every April. After training you are posted as a quarantine officer 3 months after joining, but even once you can do the full range of work, you need to keep building your knowledge and skills to do it well. The Ministry's head office runs training for each career stage, such as for young staff and for managers. Staff are developed to know both airport and seaport work well, so postings are balanced between the two. You can also deepen your knowledge of infectious diseases by attending external training and academic conferences. Based on performance reviews, there are opportunities for promotion to posts such as senior nurse, nurse manager and airport quarantine nursing manager. As well as basic nursing knowledge and skills, quarantine officers (nurses) need a deep understanding of overseas ways of life and cultures, knowledge of public health, the cooperation to work with staff in other jobs, and the awareness and sense of responsibility of a national public servant working to protect people's health. There is also a lot of office work at quarantine stations, so office skills such as writing documents and presentations on a computer are useful.

Ways in

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Questions people ask

How do I become a Quarantine Officer?

To become a quarantine officer (nurse), you must graduate from a nursing school, gain the national registered nurse qualification and have at least 3 years' clinical experience at a medical institution. You also need a standard driving licence, because you drive official vehicles to move around airports and seaports and to transport patients. Vacancies are posted on the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare website, and also through Hello Work (public employment service) and private job sites for nurses. As well as permanent full-time staff who may be transferred anywhere in the country, fixed-term staff with set workplaces are sometimes recruited. Both are hired as national public servants. Training after joining includes on-the-job training at your quarantine station and about a week of induction training run by the Ministry's head office every April. After training you are posted as a quarantine officer 3 months after joining, but even once you can do the full range of work, you need to keep building your knowledge and skills to do it well. The Ministry's head office runs training for each career stage, such as for young staff and for managers. Staff are developed to know both airport and seaport work well, so postings are balanced between the two. You can also deepen your knowledge of infectious diseases by attending external training and academic conferences. Based on performance reviews, there are opportunities for promotion to posts such as senior nurse, nurse manager and airport quarantine nursing manager. As well as basic nursing knowledge and skills, quarantine officers (nurses) need a deep understanding of overseas ways of life and cultures, knowledge of public health, the cooperation to work with staff in other jobs, and the awareness and sense of responsibility of a national public servant working to protect people's health. There is also a lot of office work at quarantine stations, so office skills such as writing documents and presentations on a computer are useful.

Do you need a degree to become a Quarantine Officer?

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 Quarantine Officer?

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

Sources

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