The governor of Japan's Miyagi prefecture has visited Vietnam to appeal to young people to train as health-care workers.

Murai Yoshihiro spent time on Thursday at a facility near the capital, Hanoi, where students prepare themselves to come to Japan as technical trainees.

He saw a nursing-care class taught in Japanese. He introduced Miyagi's culture and traditions to the students and encouraged them to choose the prefecture.

Miyagi is expected to face a shortfall of more 13,700 nursing staff by 2040. That's due mainly to the aging of the population.

As of last December, the majority of technical trainees in Japan, or more than 160,000, were from Vietnam.

But the yen's depreciation against the Vietnamese dong means that the income they earn in Japan now buys less at home. This has led a growing number to choose other destinations such as Taiwan.