Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the METI “diversity management” policy, officially regarded as a “non-migration policy” to retain high-skilled foreign talents. It critically analyzes the companies’ role and suggests that the implementation of the policy may run counter to the original policy purpose.

Paper long abstract:

Arguably known as an emerging “immigration country”, Japan has the image of a “closed country” in the academic world. Nevertheless, contrary to the public image, Japan has been consistently welcoming high-skilled immigrants. Furthermore, after the 3.11 triple disaster, it enacted a point system, and through repeated relaxation of conditions, it launched a series of policies, including the establishment of new visa categories with Japanese version of "green card" in 2017, one of the fastest in the world, that would attract high skilled talents. Despite such “migration policies”, the number of high-skilled talents until 2020 is 26.406, even less than the 27.241 non-EU blue card recipients in Germany in the single year of 2018. Scholars have identified the lack of non-migration policies (hi-ijū seisaku) as the cause of the problem, pointing out that the issue is the small inflow and outflow of high-skilled talents (Oishi, 2018).

However, between 2012 and 2021, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) conducted a "Diversity Management Selection 100"/”Diversity Management 2.0 Prime” industrial human resource policy to encourage companies to recruit and retain employees with diverse backgrounds, not limited to but including foreign talents, in order to stimulate innovation and supplement the aging workforce. Through a comparative analysis based on the official evaluation report of high-skilled talents’ acceptance by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the "Diversity Management Selection 100"/”Diversity Management 2.0 Prime” by METI, this paper suggests that "non-migration policies" have not been absent under the second Abe administration, yet the improvements in the workplace seem to be limited. By further analyzing the more than seventy best practices that have been awarded for the active intake of foreign (high-skilled) employees, this paper identifies some award-winning practices that contradict the policy’s purpose. This paper attempts to argue that the reason why the output and outcome of the high-skilled migration policy are not fully aligned may not only lie in the contesting interests in the policy formulation, but also in the implementation of the policy.

Oishi, Nana. 2018. "The Pitfalls of Skilled Migration Policies in Japan." Japanese Sociological Review 68 (4):549-566. doi: 10.4057/jsr.68.549.