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Working in Japan

Japanese for Care Workers (Kaigo) in Japan: Tests, Phrases and Care Records

By the Hanabuddies team · · 3 min read

To work in elderly care (介護, kaigo) in Japan, you need practical spoken Japanese for talking with residents and coworkers, plus enough reading and writing for care records. For the Specified Skilled Worker route, the usual requirement is JLPT N4 or the JFT-Basic test, plus a care-specific Japanese test and a care skills test. But passing tests is only the start: real care work means understanding older people who may speak slowly, quietly or in dialect, using gentle polite language, and reporting accurately to your team. Focus on listening, care vocabulary and polite everyday speech.

Language requirements

Several routes lead to care work in Japan, and each has its own rules:

  • Specified Skilled Worker (care): typically JLPT N4 or JFT-Basic, the Care Worker Japanese Language Evaluation Test (介護日本語評価試験), and the care skills test. See JFT-Basic test preparation.
  • Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) programmes for some countries, with their own Japanese training.
  • The “Care” residence status, linked to the national certified care worker qualification (介護福祉士), which needs a much higher level of Japanese.

Requirements change, so always check official sources or your sending organisation. This article is about the Japanese you need, not visa advice.

The Japanese you will use every day

  • Greetings and check-ins: おはようございます。よく眠れましたか。 (Good morning. Did you sleep well?)
  • Explaining before you help: 今から体を起こしますね。 (I’m going to help you sit up now.) Telling a resident what you are about to do is a basic part of respectful care.
  • Asking about comfort: 痛いところはありませんか。 (Are you in any pain?) 寒くないですか。 (Are you cold?)
  • Meals, bathing and toileting: words like 食事 (meal), 入浴 (bath), 排泄 (toileting), 水分 (fluids).
  • Reporting to the team: 〇〇さん、今朝は食欲がありませんでした。 (Mr/Ms ○○ didn’t have an appetite this morning.)

Speaking to older people

Care staff use polite but warm Japanese, often softened with 〜ね and 〜ましょうか. Avoid talking down to residents or using very casual speech, and use their family name with さん unless told otherwise. Many older people speak regional dialects, so listening practice with different voices helps. See Japanese honorifics and Japanese dialects.

Reading and writing care records

Care records (介護記録) are short, factual notes about meals, sleep, mood, health changes and incidents. They use a set vocabulary and many kanji, such as 体温 (body temperature), 血圧 (blood pressure), 転倒 (fall) and 様子 (condition). Learning these words in kanji early makes daily work much easier. Our guide on how to learn kanji can help.

Handover and phone calls

Shift handovers (申し送り) are fast and full of abbreviations. Write down key points, repeat them back, and ask when unsure: すみません、もう一度確認してもいいですか。 You may also answer the phone to family members, so practise Japanese phone calls at work.

Preparing with a tutor

Online lessons with a native tutor can focus on exactly what care work needs: role-plays with a tutor playing a resident or a family member, listening practice, care vocabulary, short report writing and preparation for the language tests. Training can be one-to-one or for groups of staff, for example arranged by an employer or training organisation.