Paper short abstract:

This paper examines a recent trend in the Japanese news media of using the term ‘refugee’ as metaphor. It suggests that the metaphor has shifted the term’s implications from visual to conceptual, and from international to domestic, diverting public attention from the reality of refugee protection.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines a recent trend in the Japanese news media of using the term ‘refugee’ as metaphor. The rise of refugee Diasporas is one of the significant transformations the international community has faced in recent decades. Yet, Japan itself accepts few refugees. According to the Japanese Association for Refugees, out of nearly 20,000 applications for refugee resettlement in 2017, Japan accepted only 20. Why does Japan grant asylum to so few refugees? In order to provide lexical observations on this situation, this paper explores how the term ‘refugee’ (nanmin) is used in the Japanese news media. In 2007, a Japanese journalist popularised the sensational term ‘net cafe refugee’ for those who do not have a fixed address and sleep in 24-hour Internet cafes. While the word was selected as one of the ten ‘new words of the year’ by the media company U-Can, the usage of ‘refugee’ in this context provoked a controversy and prompted the Japan Complex Cafe Association to release an official statement asking journalists to refrain from using the term. In this statement, the owners of Internet cafes argued that the metaphor gave internet cafes a negative image due to popular Japanese stereotypes that associate refugees with criminality. Despite the outcry, the term ‘refugee’ remains popular today as metaphor for those who lack access to particular facilities, services, or experiences – for instance, ‘insurance refugee’, ‘information refugee’, ‘shopping refugees’, and so on. Through the analysis of textual data containing these metaphorical expressions extracted from newspaper archives, this the paper seeks to unveil the discursive meaning of the term ‘refugee’ and its possible impact on public perception of issues related to refugee protection. It concludes by suggesting that through the refugee metaphor, the term’s implications have shifted from visual to conceptual, and from international to domestic, with the possible effect of diverting public attention from the reality of refugee protection to social issues in Japan.

Paper short abstract:

This research investigates the ongoing process of creating a category of humanitarian and development practitioner as a profession in Japan, underlining at the same time the importance of validating this practice and its outcomes through securing recognition of outside audiences.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last three decades Japanese NGOs grew in size and scope, and became increasingly engaged in the delivery of Japanese foreign aid projects. Furthermore, they have participated more frequently in humanitarian response to national emergencies, such as 3/11 and the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes, raising their visibility in the domestic setting. Yet despite these attainments, the lack of recognition among domestic audience continues to be a noticeable feature of working in Japanese NGO sector at present.

This paper explores the puzzle of limited societal recognition for professional identities and activities of humanitarian and development practitioners working in Japanese NGO sector among the general public. The analytical framework of the paper is informed by insights from sociology of occupations and professions, studies on aidwork, and social movement theory. The paper utilises information gather through semi-structured interviews with members of Japanese NGOs and quantitative data gathered from surveys published by the government and non-profit actors. Methodologically, the paper is informed by thematic analysis.

In the paper I propose that despite the increasing professionalisation and professionalism in the sector, activities of NGO practitioners are frequently mistakenly construed as volunteering. Additionally, the concerns about anti-government or “political” undertone to NGO activities indicate a limited acceptance for advocacy function of NGOs existing among some sections of the public. I argue that these misperceptions constitute a considerable challenge for the fostering of recognition and building of domestic constituencies for development and humanitarian NGOs. Finally, I explore how the dominant approach to non-profit activism in Japan promoted by the government in the post 1995/1998 climate in the public sphere is a consequential causal factor in hindering the process of institutionalising the idea of professional NGO practitioners as a legitimate knowledge-based work in the public sphere.

Paper short abstract:

Overall 60% of the people worldwide have only part-time work. This change from full-time jobs to part-time jobs is most evident in the developed countries, particularly in Japan, Many foreign students choose to do part-time work to help pay their tuition or living expenses.

Paper long abstract:

At present workers with non-standard forms of employment are increasingly increasing types of work. In addition to the flexibility of time, of course, this type of work provides many choices for workers to choose what type of work they want to do. In the world today there are 21 countries that have high numbers of non-standard forms of employment, most of them are European origin countries such as the UK, Ireland, Germany, and Austria. In Asia alone, the number of types of part-time workers is quite high is Japan.

With Japan's demographic condition continuing to decline the number of productive work rates has also declined, with the trend that the type of part-time work has become a phenomenon that is filled not only from Japanese workers but also foreign students who come on study visas in Japan. It is estimated that approximately 75% of foreign students at their own expense undertake part-time work in Japan. For Indonesia alone, in 2018 there are 5000 Indonesian students studying in Japan and some of them are also part-time workers. Thus this study wants to analyze more deeply the conditions of part-time workers of Indonesian students in Japan with the ethnographic method particularly in the area of Shiga, Kyoto and Osaka Japan, of course, further investigation is needed regarding the regulations and conditions of these types of part-time workers. What kind of working conditions are experienced and how they negotiate their working conditions and the vulnerabilities of part-time workers will be part of this study by using discourse theory to see what is built from fellow Indonesian part-time workers through the Indonesian perspective.

Key Words: Part-Time, Workers, Indonesia, Japan, Precarious, Discourse