TOKYO — Japan’s Gakken Holdings will begin operating nursing-care facilities in Myanmar, continuing the company’s expansion into Asian markets where demand is expected to grow as the population ages.
Subsidiary Gakken Cocofump, which handles the education company’s nursing operations, will open an adult day-care center in April run by local joint venture Gakken Ace Education. The site in downtown Yangon will be the first foray by a Japanese nursing-care company into the Southeast Asian country.
The facility will employ about four care providers, hired locally. Gakken will consider eventually sending non-Japanese employees brought into Japan via a state-backed technical intern program to work in Myanmar as well.
The care center will offer activities such as arithmetic and painting. “We’ll export the same high-quality service we’ve provided in Japan,” Gakken Cocofump Holdings President Hitoshi Kobayakawa said.
The service will cost the equivalent of about $9 per day, targeting not just the affluent but the middle class as well. Gakken expects around 6 million yen ($52,800) in annual revenue from each day-care center.
Gakken has been expanding overseas operations in anticipation of rising demand in Asia. The company aims to provide nursing services at 10 locations in China and Southeast Asia by 2020. Gakken announced plans last month to offer consulting for nursing-care facilities in Hong Kong.
Source: Nikkei Asian Review
