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- Convenor:
-
Naoto Higuchi
(Waseda University)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Naoto Higuchi
(Waseda University)
- Section:
- Urban, Regional and Environmental Studies
- Sessions:
- Thursday 26 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
The purpose of this panel is to clarify continuity and change regarding Japan's new Immigration Law enforced in 2019. Each paper analyzes these two sides of the new immigration regime, focusing on policy processes, principles of selecting migrants, policy frame of reference and the gender gap.
Long Abstract:
The purpose of this panel is to clarify the Janus-faced nature of Japan's new Immigration Law enforced in 2019. On the one hand, it is a fundamental revision of the 1990 Immigration Law, which solely opened the "side door" to ethnic migrants (Japanese Latin Americans) and trainees/technical interns, in the following ways: (1) despite formal denial of policy changes, the government abandoned the official policy not to introduce unskilled migrant workers and (2) it broke down immobilism which had been characterizing Japanese politics during the last three decades. On the other hand, the Japanese government is still reluctant to reform its restrictive integration policies: poor programs for social mobility of migrants and widening gender gap to access to permanent residency. The four papers in this panel, therefore, shed light on continuity and change under the new immigration regime. Regarding the former aspect, the second paper points out the consistent lack of integration policies which help migrants to get better jobs. According to the third paper, it is enabled and legitimized by the new frame of reference to East Asian receiving economies. Likewise, the fourth paper reveals that gender gap in migrant labor market has not changed because upwardly mobile jobs are generally exclusive to male migrants under the new migration regime. At the same time, the first paper clarifies what enabled the sudden policy change after endless discussions and very limited reforms during the last three decades. The second paper also pays attention to shifting criteria—from "blood ties" to meritocracy—in integration of migrants. The papers will examine what's behind the enactment of the new law and what has changed and kept unchanged by it, thereby opening discussions regarding more general features of Japan's policymaking in the age of globalization and population decline.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 26 August, 2021, -Naoto Higuchi (Waseda University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines Japan's shifting principle to introduce migrant workers, focusing on Nikkeijin and specific skilled workers. It argues that differential status to these two migrants suggests that Japan's principle to rely on "blood ties" was replaced by neoliberalism based on meritocracy.
Paper long abstract:
In 2018, the Ministry of Justice of Japan granted two types of new visas: one is for the specified skilled workers and the other for fourth-generation Japanese descendants (Nikkeijin) who had been allowed to live in Japan solely as non-adult children of the third generation. Although the latter attracted much less attention than the former, which is the main topic of this panel, it implies fundamental change in Japan's migration policy. The aim of this paper is to clarify Japan's shifting principle to introduce migrant workers, focusing on what the Japanese government learned from its thirty-year experience to import Nikkeijin and technical interns. At first glance the newly instituted status for the fourth-generation Nikkeijin looks like expansion of jus sanguinis, but it is blatantly based on meritocracy and getting similar to temporary guest worker programs. The visa allows only five-year length of stay and cannot be extended. In addition, fourth-generation applicants are not authorized family reunification and required to pass the N4 level of the Japanese Language Aptitude Test, all of which were never demanded to the second- and the third-generation Nikkeijin. On the other hand, the government made a major revision to pave the way to permanent residency for technical interns. They were granted non-renewable five-year visa, but the new Immigration Law permitted them to change their visa as specified skilled workers. They are also allowed family reunification after five-year work and then qualified to apply for permanent residency. Differential status to these two migrants suggests that Japan's principle to rely on "blood ties" was replaced by neoliberalism based on meritocracy, in which migrants had to learn the rope without effective integration policies such as language and vocational training programs.
Nanako Inaba (Sophia University)
Paper short abstract:
I will analyze how Japanese gender regime affects immigration policy and migrant women's life. Migrant women are concentrated in extremely narrow range of "women's work". Their poor working conditions are reinforced by new immigration policy which implicitly screens migrants by gender.
Paper long abstract:
Migrant women are said to be "emancipated" in host countries which are in general more democratic than their countries of origin. Some researchers argue that earning money by themselves empowers migrant women. On the contrary, women in semi- or unskilled jobs experience disempowerment after coming to Japan. Migrants are unofficially screened by gender when they are to live in Japan. Compared with men, a limited range of jobs are available for migrant women: as entertainers in the sex industry, care workers, workers in labor-intensive factories or spouses of the Japanese. Migrant women have been differently incorporated into the Japanese labor market in accordance with their nationalities and types of visas. For women of some nationalities who have a long-term resident visa or a permanent visa, labor participation ratio is even lower when they are in Japan than in their countries of origin. Spouses of the Japanese (Chinese, Koreans and Filipinas) are less likely to work outside home than descendants of Japanese (Brazilians and Peruvians) who are working in factories. In addition, per hour wages of women are generally lower than those of men in manufacturing and service industries. New immigration policy in 2019 seems to reinforce this tendency. Among fourteen industrial sectors to accept migrant workers, the care industry, which pays the lowest wages among them, is expected to import the largest number of workers. Without changing the gender regime, employment in "women's works" will reinforce old-fashioned gender roles of migrant women in Japan. Using data collected by interviews with migrant women, I will analyze how Japanese gender regime affects immigration policy and migrant women's lives. Low wages and poor working conditions are not only economically impoverishing migrant women, but also deprives them of freedom because of their dependency to male family members.
David Chiavacci (University of Zurich)
Paper short abstract:
Japan's 2019 reform in immigration policy is surprising in speed and scope. This paper analyzes the policy processes of the reform in comparison to earlier periods of intensive debate around 1990 and 2005. It discusses the changes in ideas, actors and institutional setting in immigration policy.
Paper long abstract:
Japan's 2019 reform in immigration policy and introduction of a guest worker program for non-highly skilled foreign workers is surprising in speed and scope. Since the late 1980s, Japan has new immigration movements. This transformation into an immigration country has led to intensive political and public debates, especially around 1990 and 2005. However, in contrast to a number of far-reaching reform proposals, immigration policy was marked by endless discussions and very limited reform. Due to ideational and institutional fragmentation, immigration policy was another prime example for an immobilist policy field. However, then in 2018 in a few months a comprehensive immigration reform was pushed through, in which the main principle in official immigration policy of accepting only highly qualified foreign workers was suddenly discharged. This paper will analyze comparatively the policy processes of the 2019 reform with to the two earlier periods of intensive debate on immigration around 1990 and 2005. It will discuss the changes in ideas, actors and institutional settings of immigration policy and explain how an immobilist policy field was transformed into a hotbed of dynamic reform.
Sachi Takaya (University of Tokyo)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation argues the characteristics of the new migration policy in Japan by analyzing the policy and media reports on the revision of the Immigration Law. It points out that the policy's dual characteristics reflect Japan's ambiguity with its own position between "West" and "Asia."
Paper long abstract:
In 2019, Japan introduced a new migration policy for accepting migrant workers in fourteen industrial sectors. It was the first time the Japanese government admitted the reception of migrant workers due to a labor shortage. This presentation will argue the characteristics of the new policy in Japan. As a late-comer among migrant-receiving countries, the reports about Japan's migration policy in the media tend to refer to similar policies in other countries. However, the major countries of reference over the thirty years have been changing, from European countries such as Germany to East Asian countries such as South Korea and Taiwan. It leads to a legitimization of the "quasi-" guest worker program for low-skilled migrant workers because, unlike in European countries, these Asian countries run the guest worker programs for low-skilled workers, and they do not allow family reunification or access to permanent residency (Seol and Skrentny 2009). On the other hand, Japan's new system opens the ability for migrant workers, though in the limited sectors, to bring their family and access permanent residency after they have worked for five years. This differentiates its system from the "pure" guest worker programs in other Asian countries. In this context, this presentation will trace the dual characteristics of Japan's migration policy by analyzing media reports on the revision of the Immigration Control Acts of 1990 and 2019, as well as the policy itself. It argues that the media reports deal with "Datsu-Ou Nyu-A" (脱欧入亜)—the change from Europe to Asia in the countries of reference. However, the actual policy that permits family reunification and access to permanent residency reflects Japan's ambiguity with its own position in the modern era.