According to Nikkei Asia Review, Vietnam and Japan will sign the memorandum of understanding on this deal this year.

Japan will provide financial assistance for language training for the first 3,000 Vietnamese trainees this year, and the rest by 2020.

The program will allow workers with conversational Japanese skills to get a five-year residency.

The Japanese government is also planning a new program that offers an additional residency of five years for those who complete their technical training in nursing and social welfare. The training is part of the “Asia Health and Human Well-being Initiative” program in which trainees will able to acquire knowledge of providing nursing care and social welfare to aging Asian societies. These caregivers will receive the same remuneration as their Japanese peers, it has been reported.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has said that with the manpower from Vietnam, the sector will still face a shortage of 30,000 staff. The ministry projects that the nation will need an additional 790,000 caregivers in 2035.

Japan has also offered similar proposals to Cambodia, Indonesia and Laos.

Japan’s shrinking and aging population is causing severe labor shortages in the world’s third largest economy.

From 2008 to 2017, Japan had welcomed 3,500 foreign caregivers into the nation via the economic partnership agreement, Nikkei reported.

Since 2014, Vietnam has been sending trainee nurses and caregivers to Japan under an agreement between the two countries. It is estimated that about 470 Vietnamese medical staff members were working in Japan as of February 2017.