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Labor Migration to Japan: Demography and the Sense of Crisis
Organizer: Gabriele Vogt, German Institute for Japanese Studies, Japan
Chair and Discussant: Glenda S. Roberts, Waseda University, Graduate School of Asia Pacific, Japan
Japan is among the fastest ageing societies in the world. One of the demographic challenges the nation faces is an evolving imbalance of working and non-working population. As long as other demographic factors – foremost the total fertility rate – remain unchanged, Japan in the near future will have to cope with a shortage in its workforce.
The current public and political discourse on labor migration to Japan in a highly emotionalized manner juxtaposes two alternatives: It seems Japan must choose between either saving the national economy from the negative impacts of an ever shrinking workforce, or preventing foreign crime and international terrorism from occurring within its national boundaries. In other words, the debate revolves primarily around two issues: First, is labor migration to Japan a national security issue? Second, should labor migration to Japan include unskilled workers or be limited to a smaller scale migration composed exclusively of skilled professionals?
This panel identifies the actors in the above mentioned discourse and traces the impact they have on agenda setting, policy-formation and policy-implementation alike. It thereby follows an approach of multi-level politics which takes into account not only efforts on the national level, but also by local governments, grassroots activists and the media. The panel draws together researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds (political science, sociology and anthropology); it sheds light on labor migration to Japan from different disciplinary angles thus aiming for a comprehensive understanding of this pressing issue.
Closed doors, open doors, doors wide shut? Migration Politics in Japan
Gabriele Vogt, German Institute for Japanese Studies, Japan
Is labor migration a solution to Japan’s shrinking workforce? The basic numbers tell us yes. The question, however, gets complex when we take into account political and societal factors influencing the current debate around this question.
I map the positions governmental agencies, business federations, and international organizations hold with regard to the following two issues, central to the current debate: First, should labor migration to Japan be opened to the ‘unskilled workforce’ (tanjun rodo) or be limited to the highly/medium skilled workers? Secondly, is labor migration to Japan (perceived to be) an issue of security for the nation? My special interest lies with how civil society organizations shape this discourse, i.e. how do they lobby their target actors (the ones named above)? Do they make use of domestic and/or transnational ways of contentious engagement? By this, how do they shape Japan’s political landscape?
Following a qualitative content analysis of multi-level politics, I argue that the traditional rivalry between political and economical elites on the one side vs. international organizations and non-state actors on the other breaks down with regard to the issue of labor migration. Instead, there is a possibility for new forms of coalition building among interest groups, and for shifts of power in the structure of interdependence between these actors.
Strangers and Security: The Competing Discourses of Immigration and Security in Japan
Ryoko Yamamoto, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
The concern for security frequently emerges in immigration debates. The perception of immigration as a security threat is particularly strong in Japan. With the prospect of an increased level of immigration at a time of drastic population decline, the Japanese state seeks stricter control of its foreign population as a measure of crime prevention.
This paper examines multiple discourses of security and immigration generated by actors in the field of immigration in Japan. Transnational migration reveals the vulnerability of individuals in multiple ways. Law enforcement agencies and migrant-support activists tackle different aspects of security depending on their positionality and consciousness derived from it. The National Police Agency understands security as maintenance of law and order and presents immigration as a criminal threat to Japanese society. Their discourse embodies the nationalized conception of security, a belief that the nation-state maintains security through the strict control of national borders and internal population. Migrant support NGOs challenge the bundling of nation and security and demand a more inclusive conceptualization of security that allows seeing immigrants as a target of protection rather than of blame. They propose the idea of human security, arguing that security is achieved by assuring human rights for everyone regardless of national membership or immigration status.
Through the examination of multiple discourses of security and immigration, this paper suggests that increasingly multinational societies unsettle the traditional notion of state-based security and opens up an opportunity for a new, more human-based conception of security.
Japanese local governments facing the reality of immigration
Atsuko Abe, Obirin University, School of International Studies, Japan
This paper addresses the ways municipal governments in Japan take issues of immigration at hand. In February 2006, I conducted a survey to approximately 2000 municipal governments, aiming at insights into how immigration policy is implemented on a local level.
I found that there are indeed large numbers of cities, towns and villages, which explicitly address the rising foreign population as an issue and some of them consider multiculturalism as a possible policy option. Municipalities with an already significant proportion of foreign residents have developed multilingual administrative services. Although those without Japanese citizenship do not have any access to political representation even at local levels, foreigners’ councils in some cities can report directly to the respective mayor who is legally bound to respond to the report. In some localities, on the other hand, the foreign population is almost exclusively made up by wives of farmers, who single-handedly carry the responsibilities as mothers and care-takers of their in-laws. Municipal governments in charge in these areas need to meet specific needs. In areas where immigration has already been perceived to be a potential solution to their current and future social construction, the speed of the aging process of the society is particularly high.
Based on the quantitative data of my survey, in this paper I argue that the ways Japan’s local administrations handle the realities of immigration are manifold and pragmatic, and may provide useful ideas to national policy-makers
Beyond the Bind between Rules and Reality: Civil Society Advocacy Groups and Securing Protections for Foreign Migrants
Deborah J. Milly, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universit
Contemporary transnational labor migration schemes, even when they claim to protect human rights, often fall short. While a single national law may prescribe protections for foreign residents, it takes more than a law to achieve them—often because bureaucratic inconsistencies and coordination problems among agencies and levels of government make it easy for a person to lose a “documented” status or become ineligible for state protections. In other words, the details of policy provisions and how they fit with other policies create “binds” to which migrant workers are susceptible and that threaten their access to protections or continued residence. In such contexts, citizen advocacy groups provide services to migrants, insist on implementation of protections, gather information on conditions of migrants’ lives, and lobby for policy changes to address inadequacies and contradictions in the policy system.
How does Japan compare when placed with its counterpart countries of “recent immigration” in terms of the role that advocacy groups play in securing protections for migrants, especially those caught in such policy binds? Certainly Japan differs from countries like South Korea, Italy, and Spain in the scale of labor migration, character of migration schemes, and resources of third sector organizations. Yet the problems these groups encounter and efforts they make are surprisingly similar. This paper uses cross-national comparison in examining how such groups act as intermediaries across different jurisdictions within the state. It then reflects on the efforts and accomplishments of advocacy groups to consider alternatives for a more coherent policy approach in Japan.