The Japanese Embassy in the Philippines said Monday that it is reviewing the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) as the Philippine government expressed hopes to allow Japanese language course trainings here to increase the number of nurses going to Japan.

In a press conference at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday, Japanese Embassy Minister for Economic Affairs Tomochika Uyama said they are reviewing the operations of the current JPEPA in order to improve the system.

The Japanese embassy signed yesterday the P5-billion additional official development assistance (ODA) to the Philippines for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of infrastructures devastated by tropical storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng.”

“At this stage we’re reviewing the operations of the JPEPA process. In general, we’d like to continue discussions with the Philippines, most appropriately to improve the system. We would like to continue to talk and see what would be the best way,” he said.

Uyama recognized that the language training and the nursing exam under the JPEPA must have been difficult for the Filipino nurses.