Care Managers Average 55.1 Years, the Oldest of Any Role in Japanese Care — Exam Candidates Fell From 131,560 to 49,332 and Have Not Returned in Seven Years
Candidates for Japan's care manager qualification fell from 131,560 in fiscal 2017 to 49,332 in fiscal 2018, the year the care-work route was removed from the entry requirements. Seven years on the number has not returned, and the last three sittings ran 56,494, 53,699 and 50,601. Meanwhile those already in post average 55.1 years, the oldest of any role in the sector. This piece reads a system that narrowed its entrance while only the exit kept moving.
TL;DR
- Candidates for the care manager examination fell 62.5% in one year, from 131,560 in fiscal 2017 to 49,332 in fiscal 2018
- The last three sittings also declined, running 56,494, 53,699 and 50,601
- In the fiscal 2025 care labour survey, care managers averaged 55.1 years, the oldest of any role in the sector
- Within that distribution, 0.0% are under 30 and 35.4% are 60 or over
On the other side, those already in post are ageing. In the fiscal 2025 care labour survey, care managers averaged 55.1 years, the highest of any role in the sector and 16 years above the lowest, the 39.1 years of physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists. The average across all respondents was 49.5.
What Is Happening
Candidates fell 60% in a year, never returned in seven, and have fallen again three times running
Candidates fell 62.5% in a single year
Becoming a care manager requires passing the practical training course examination. Lined up by year, the candidate numbers have a step in them.
FY2017 (the 20th sitting) had 131,560 candidates; FY2018 (the 21st) had 49,332. A fall of 62.5% in one year.
The floor came the year after, at 41,049
The fall itself follows from the requirements changing. What stands out is what came next.
The floor was not the 21st sitting. The 22nd sitting (FY2019) had 41,049 candidates, the fewest across all 28 sittings. That is 31.2% of the 20th.
It came back part of the way. The 23rd had 46,415, the 24th 54,290, the 25th 54,406 and the 26th 56,494. The 26th was the high point of the recovery.
Then it fell again. The 27th had 53,699 and the 28th 50,601. Down 5,893 in two years from the 26th.
Seven years on, it has not returned to six figures.
Across 28 sittings, 3,162,106 sat and 781,248 passed
The long scale is published too. The 1st sitting (FY1998) had 207,080 candidates and 91,269 passes, a pass rate of 44.1%. That remains the largest candidate figure.
Across the 1st to 28th sittings the cumulative totals are 3,162,106 candidates and 781,248 passes. A pass rate of 24.7% over the whole run.
The average age in post is 55.1, the highest of any care occupation
Meanwhile the people already doing the job are getting older. According to the FY2025 survey by the Care Work Foundation, the average age of care managers is 55.1, the highest of any care occupation.
The overall average is 49.5, with home helpers at 51.1, care workers at 47.8, service coordinators at 50.5, welfare counsellors at 47.2, nursing staff at 48.2 and physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists at 39.1. A 16-year spread within one industry.
Background & Context
From fiscal 2018 the route through care work left the entry requirements
What changed in FY2018
The eligibility requirements were revised. Until then, someone without a national qualification could sit the exam after a set period working in care. The ministry's tabulation for each sitting still carries a note to the effect that, up to the 20th sitting, those working in care duties — then an eligible route — are counted within the figures for consultation and support work. From the 21st sitting that route was gone.
The basis is a notification of 12 February 2015. The amendment was settled then, and transitional provisions kept the old requirements available through the 20th sitting. The step appears in FY2018 because those provisions expired.
Pass rates range from 10.1% to 44.1%
The intent is legible. A profession that draws up care insurance plans was to be held to a standard of consultation and support expertise. And indeed the pass rate at the 21st sitting fell to 10.1%, with 4,990 passes against 28,233 the year before, a fall of more than 80%.
The pass rate keeps swinging, though. The 27th (FY2024) was 32.1% with 17,228 passes; the 28th (FY2025) was 25.6% with 12,961. Across all 28 sittings, the lowest is 10.1% at the 21st and the highest 44.1% at the 1st.
Fewer candidates with a higher pass rate still yields more passes, and the reverse happens too. The quantity is being adjusted at the exam rather than at the eligibility rules.
No respondent care manager is under 30
What sits behind the 55.1 average is in the survey's appendix.
Among 2,678 care managers the age distribution is 0.0% under 20, 0.0% aged 20 to under 25, 0.0% aged 25 to under 30, 1.2% aged 30 to under 35, 3.5% aged 35 to under 40, 9.9% aged 40 to under 45, 15.9% aged 45 to under 50, 17.6% aged 50 to under 55, 15.4% aged 55 to under 60, 18.1% aged 60 to under 65, 10.4% aged 65 to under 70, 4.7% aged 70 to under 75 and 2.2% aged 75 or over.
Under 30 is 0.0%. Widening to under 40 gives 4.7%.
The other end is thick. Those aged 60 or over are 35.4%, and 65 or over 17.3%.
The comparison sharpens it. Across all respondents, 21.3% are 60 or over and 10.4% are 65 or over. Care managers are 1.7 times that on both counts. The youngest occupation, physiotherapists and their colleagues, is 56.1% under 40.
- Under 200.0%
- 20 to under 250.0%
- 25 to under 300.0%
- 30 to under 351.2%
- 35 to under 403.5%
- 40 to under 459.9%
- 45 to under 5015.9%
- 50 to under 5517.6%
- 55 to under 6015.4%
- 60 to under 6518.1%
- 65 to under 7010.4%
- 70 to under 754.7%
- 75 or over2.2%
Pay is 259,950 yen and its growth is second from bottom
The amounts are in the same survey. For those paid monthly, average monthly pay is 254,951 yen overall, 259,950 for care managers, 239,756 for home helpers, 239,855 for care workers, 263,280 for service coordinators, 252,994 for welfare counsellors, 293,318 for nursing staff and 281,174 for physiotherapists and their colleagues, excluding bonuses, overtime and holiday premiums.
Care managers are 20,095 yen above care workers and 4,999 above the overall figure.
Growth runs the other way. Year-on-year increases are 2.4% overall, 4.1% for home helpers, 3.1% for care workers, 3.1% for welfare counsellors, 2.5% for service coordinators, 1.1% for nursing staff, 0.8% for care managers and −1.0% for physiotherapists and their colleagues.
Second from bottom of the seven. The occupation with the highest average age sits at the low end for pay growth.
At establishment level, hiring exceeds departures
The survey of establishments shows another side. For care managers the hiring rate is 12.4% and the separation rate 9.5%, across 3,764 responding establishments.
Among the seven occupations, nursing staff are highest on both at 20.8% and 14.6%, and service coordinators lowest at 8.0% and 7.8%. Care managers sit between.
Hiring exceeds departures by 2.9 points. But this hiring rate is the share of establishments taking someone on over a year. People moving from another establishment count as hires. This figure does not measure how many newly qualified.
Reading the Structure
The entrance was narrowed, and only the ageing of those in post kept moving
Where is the narrowing made up?
Narrowing the entrance to a qualification always carries a paired question. Where is the narrowing made up?
In this occupation it is not. Candidates have not returned in seven years and have fallen again since the 26th sitting. And the average age in post is 55.1, the highest of any care occupation.
The 16-year gap to physiotherapists and their colleagues is not simply a matter of having many experienced people. The length of the period during which fewer came in shows up directly in the age distribution.
Care managers
average 55.1, n=2,678
- Under 40
- 4.7%
- 60 or over
- 35.4%
- 65 or over
- 17.3%
- Average monthly pay
- 259,950 yen
- Year-on-year growth
- 0.8% (second from bottom)
Physiotherapists and colleagues
average 39.1, n=539
- Under 40
- 56.1%
- 60 or over
- 2.1%
- 65 or over
- 0.8%
- Average monthly pay
- 281,174 yen
- Year-on-year growth
- −1.0% (lowest)
Across all respondents the average is 49.5, with 21.3% aged 60 or over, 10.4% aged 65 or over, and average pay of 254,951 yen (up 2.4%).
What 0.0% under 30 means
A high average age is also a depth of experience. The problem is that the depth leaves in one go at retirement.
With 35.4% aged 60 or over, most of them leave the workforce within a decade. The question is then whether a cohort of the same size is coming up behind.
A distribution of 0.0% under 30 and 4.7% under 40 does not supply it. Candidate numbers stuck in the 50,000s and this distribution are the same fact from two angles.
If the upstream is thin, the downstream cannot be wider
There is another property to the change in requirements. Restricting eligibility to holders of national qualifications and people with consultation experience means the intake is drawn only from those who already passed through another qualification system.
If care workers, social workers, nurses and assistant nurses were in ample supply, that would not matter. They are not. If the upstream is thin, the downstream cannot be wider.
The establishment hiring rate of 12.4% against a separation rate of 9.5% has to be read alongside this. Establishments can hire. Most of who they hire already hold the qualification.
Raising quality and securing numbers are different designs
There is a further constraint on the fee side. Home care support caps the number of cases one care manager can handle. Unless numbers rise, the total number of users who can be supported stops there.
Businesses closing appeared in 91 home-care bankruptcies against 45 in day services（このサイトの記事）; on both the planning side and the visiting side, the people are thinning.
Designing for higher quality and designing for sufficient numbers are different tasks. Move the first and leave the second, and the landing point is a shortage of highly qualified people. Provision existing without reaching people was covered in exclusion and non-take-up（このサイトの記事）; here the people who do the reaching are missing.
What is not known
What is known: 28 sittings of candidate and pass numbers, the age distribution in post, pay, and hiring and separation rates. Two things are not.
The first is whether the fall in candidates is down to the requirements alone. It bottomed at the 22nd sitting, recovered to the 26th, and fell again. The requirements have not changed since FY2018, so those movements come from something else.
The second is whether those who pass actually work as care managers. The exam confers eligibility for the practical training course; passing it does not mean taking the job.
Further Reading
- 『介護格差』 (Care Inequality)（外部サイト、新しいタブで開きます） (Yasuhiro Yuki, Iwanami Shoten). An account, drawn from practice, of what separates those who can obtain care services from those who cannot. Useful for tracing how a shrinking workforce lands on the people being served.
References
Results of the 28th Care Manager Practical Training Entrance Examination — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2026). Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Results of the 21st Care Manager Practical Training Entrance Examination — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2018). Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Results of the 20th Care Manager Practical Training Entrance Examination — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2017). Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Fiscal 2025 Survey on Care Labour: Worker Survey, Results Report — Care Work Foundation (2026). Care Work Foundation
Results of the Care Manager Practical Training Entrance Examination — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2026). Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Statistics cited in this article
- 1MHLW, Results of the 28th Care Manager Practical Training Course Examination（FY2017 and FY2018） Open source
- 2MHLW, Results of the 28th Care Manager Practical Training Course Examination（FY2019） Open source
- 3MHLW, Results of the 28th Care Manager Practical Training Course Examination（FY2020 to FY2023） Open source
- 4MHLW, Results of the 28th Care Manager Practical Training Course Examination（FY2024 and FY2025） Open source
- 5MHLW, Results of the 28th Care Manager Practical Training Course Examination（FY1998） Open source
- 6MHLW, Results of the 28th Care Manager Practical Training Course Examination（FY2025） Open source
- 7Care Work Foundation, FY2025 Survey on Care Work, Survey of Care Workers（FY2025） Open source
Corrections
— Checked every care manager exam figure against the ministry's table row by row and added the years and cumulative totals that were missing.
- Before
- Recently 56,494 candidates in FY2023, 53,699 in FY2024 and 50,601 in FY2025 / FY2024 had a pass rate of 32.1% with 17,228 passing, and FY2025 25.6% with 12,961
- After
- The 22nd sitting in FY2019 had 41,049 candidates, the fewest across 28 sittings / 46,415 at the 23rd, 54,290 at the 24th, 54,406 at the 25th and 56,494 at the 26th / the first sitting had 207,080 candidates and 91,269 passes, a rate of 44.1% / across the first 28 sittings, 3,162,106 candidates and 781,248 passes
Why we got it wrong Every figure in the article matched the source table. The article covered only the most recent years, however, omitting the lowest year and the cumulative totals, which have now been added from the full table.
Questions to Reflect On
- When entry is narrowed to raise the quality of a qualification, who is responsible for the volume
- What is happening to a role whose average age is the highest in its sector
- Seven years after a requirement change, when does a number stop being a temporary dip
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