International labor migration and regional revitalization: Divergent perceptions and support of foreign workers in Japan’s rural communities

This research is entitled, "The Effect of Demographic Transition on the Needs for Foreign Workers in Japan". The data from this study are from the distribution of questionnaires to students at Kobe Women's University-Japan and the results of interviews from a number of informants in Japan. From the distribution of the questionnaire, there were 70 data related to this research. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to answer the Japanese public's response to the need for foreign workers in Japan and the type of work that dominates foreign workers in Japan. This research will be studied from a socio-cultural point of view. The method used is an open questionnaire and a closed questionnaire with an advanced technique, namely interviews. The results of this study are that of the 70 informants, 60 people responded that Japan was being dominated by foreign workers and 10 more people said they did not agree with the statement. Regarding the dominant occupations carried out by foreign workers in Japan, among others, health workers for the elderly, manufacturing, shopkeepers who are open until late, and restaurants. The point is that it is a job field that is rarely liked by Japanese people and for foreign workers who do not use Japanese much while working. However, foreign workers who want to work in Japan should understand the culture and customs of Japanese society.

The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)1 concluded by the Japanese and the Philippine governments on 9 September 2006, was described in the Japanese media as a ‘new step toward opening Japan's lab...

The number of foreign workers in Japan has been steadily increasing in recent years, especially in urban areas. Among them are international students working part-time and foreigners staying to work in Japan. In this article, we will discuss the actual situation of foreign workers and social conditions in Japan based on official data released by the government. Japan is currently experiencing a declining birth rate. It is estimated that by 2030, 1/3 of the country's population will be aged 65, resulting in a significant shortage of productive labor. Moreover, strong international competition due to rapid globalization could create problems for Japan, unless the Japanese government expands the acceptance of foreign workers. That is why the Amendments to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (April 2019) introduced new residence visas namely, “Special Skill 1” and “Special Skill 2”. The introduction of these two special visas is an effort by the state to assist 14 specific industrial sectors that find it difficult to obtain human resources and require special skills but are not too technical and specialized. The goal is for foreign workers to be part of the progress of Japan's manufacturing and service industries. However, these efforts still have not overcome the mountain of problems surrounding foreign workers in Japan. For example, the complexity of the procedure for applying for a work visa, fraudulent companies employing foreigners with low wages, problems arising from differences in culture and values, and various other problems.

This document is about foreign workers in Japan, the evolution of immigration policy in this country, working conditions and social security. In order to sustain the Japanese economy and its society, the United Nations, OECD, and the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) have suggested that Japan should allow several tens of thousands of foreign workers to enter Japan annually.

Japan’s demographic changes over the past decades have prompted a sea change in immigration policy. Once such effect has been the influx of foreign labor to address labor shortages in various sectors of the economy. The purpose of this paper is to examine the recent situation of foreign workers in Japan who have been impacted by these immigration policies, particularly considering the coronavirus pandemic. We present the results of in-depth interviews with such individuals to provide insight into their working and living conditions. We conclude that to date, the new immigration system has failed to live up to expectations, and if Japan wants to accept more foreign workers to boost its economy and realize faster progress in globalization, more efforts need to be made at both the national and local levels.

While Japan's declining population and increasing demand for skilled labor have been widely researched, little attention has been given to the psychosocial and existential challenges faced by skilled foreign workers in Japan. This study (N=175) examines the relationships between family support, loneliness, burnout, and meaning in life among skilled foreign workers in Japan, framed by existential analysis theory. Results indicate that while participants report strong family support and do not experience significant loneliness, they face difficulties in forming deep relationships due to work-life balance challenges. These workers often lack long-term plans to settle in Japan, citing various factors, and report moderate levels of burnout. Hierarchical regression analysis reveals that age, gender, loneliness, family support, and burnout significantly impact the participants' sense of meaning in life. Key challenges identified include language barriers, loneliness, and work-life balance, while positive aspects of life in Japan include safety and daily convenience.

Chapter 5 investigated the issue of medical care for foreign workers, which represents a significant infrastructural problem for Japan. This chapter deals with another infrastructural problem, namely, that of female foreign workers in Japan. In order to set the context for discussion of specific issues relating to female foreign workers, such as international marriages between Japanese nationals and foreigners, and the raising of the off-springs of Japanese and non-Japanese parents, this chapter first considers the characteristics that distinguish female migration from male migration. Next, the chapter examines the trend in the number of female migrant workers going to Japan and examines the common features observed in these workers. The chapter then considers female migration in the sending countries, followed by a discussion of the internationalization of the entertainment industry in the Philippines, Thailand and Japan. Finally the chapter analyses the inflow of female migrant workers to Japan viewed in the context of international migration.

This article examines the identity and acculturation experience of Muslim foreign workers in Japan. The psychological impact of prolonged stay in a foreign country was studied by eliciting narratives of experiences of 24 male foreign workers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Iran who had been in Japan more than 5 years. By analysing the narratives they produced, three different styles of stories emerged which explained their experiences and their attempts to maintain or construct a sense of identity.Accepting the dominant narrative of Japanese society and describing oneself as ‘almost like Japanese’ was one way. Another strategy stressed the rejection of the dominant narrative as well as attempts to maintain the original narrative of the self as educated and active young men. The third narrative showed how individuals re‐defined themselves as Muslim by incorporating religious identity into a central part of their self‐concepts, and asserting its pervasive effect on all aspects of life.This study provides a perspective for acculturation research focused on social elements of identity, and derived from experiences in a relatively mono‐cultural society recently opening to immigration and in which there is a prevailing ideology of assimilation. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

BackgroundForeign workers are at risk for depression, and Vietnamese people tend to be reluctant to seek professional mental health care. Although Vietnamese people are the largest population among foreign workers in Japan, evidence concerning their help-seeking experiences and strategies to promote help-seeking in this population is lacking. This study aimed to identify the percentage of Vietnamese migrant workers in Japan who have sought help from healthcare professionals for depressive symptoms and to explore the factors related to their intentions to seek help from a psychiatrist.MethodsAn online questionnaire was administered to Vietnamese migrants working in Japan from October 5, 2021, to November 1, 2021. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores were calculated to measure the severity of the respondents’ depression. Help-seeking experiences related to depressive symptoms were also investigated. The General Help-Seeking Questionnaire Vignette Version (GHSQ-V) was modified and adapted to measure the respondents’ intention to seek help from a psychiatrist for depressive symptoms. To investigate the factors related to help-seeking intention, potential factors were selected from literature reviews and discussions with professionals in the field. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted.ResultsA total of 803 eligible data points were collected. Among the 53.5% of participants who scored 10 or more on the PHQ-9, 4.4% had sought help from a healthcare professional in Japan. A lower preference for coping on one’s own, greater recognition of the effectiveness of help, greater ability to make work adjustments, and a higher level of Japanese language proficiency were related to greater intentions to seek help from a psychiatrist.ConclusionsMany Vietnamese migrant workers in Japan are unable to seek help from healthcare professionals for depressive symptoms. It may be beneficial to acknowledge not only linguistic barriers but also other related factors when planning strategies to enhance Vietnamese migrant workers’ intentions to seek help from psychiatrists.

Subject Foreign workers in Japan. Significance The number of registered foreign workers in Japan last year topped 1 million for the first time. Including the unregistered and undocumented workforce, the figure is almost twice that. For the past 30 years, immigration into Japan has responded to labour markets rather than to policy. Indeed, policy moves have been listless even as foreign workers have surged into and out of the country. Since the late 1980s, Japan has attracted foreigners when specific labour markets tighten, even though the broader economy is not overheated. Impacts Labour-shortage sectors such as construction and personal services are most likely to accept foreign workers. Government immigration agencies will permit this passively, as they did the late 1980s. It will require a large and widespread worker deficit before major policy shifts occur.

The debate concerning the entry of unskilled foreign workers in Japan assumes that foreign workers are temporary guestworkers who are economically motivated, or that foreign workers will bring their families and reside in Japan permanently. This study attempted to critique these assumptions by focusing on the individual life histories of five Pakistanis who had worked in Japan. Interviews were conducted in Japan and in Pakistan, after they were deported for overstaying in Japan. Findings from the study revealed that they had complex reasons for coming to Japan and these varied according to their family situation. Furthermore, the family of these former migrant workers was a more extensive and broader network than the nuclear family. A more thoughtful examination of assumptions about migrant workers is necessary to arrive at a better understanding of migration.

In recent years, under the influence of the “global war for talent,” labor immigration policies in more developed economies (MDE) have been characterized by a dichotomization regarding foreign workers’ skills. While the immigration of highly skilled foreign workers is now being actively promoted, low-skilled immigration is being curbed by increasingly restrictive regulations. According to official immigration policy, Japan is an example par excellence of this pattern among MDE. However, in contradiction to its official immigration policy and like many other MDE, Japan has been experiencing a continuous inflow of non-highly skilled foreign workers and is structurally dependent on them today. This paper analyzes changing concepts of valuable foreign workers in Japan over the last three decades and their consequences. Who exactly a “valuable” foreign worker is is a highly contested question. It lies at the heart of Japan’s immigration policy debates and is embedded in changing ideational perceptions of immigration. Three reform periods in immigration policy and their long-term consequences are analyzed here: (1) the plan for increasing the number of foreign students as part of Japan’s internationalization in the 1980s; (2) the first reform debate in reaction to new irregular immigration around 1990; and (3) the second reform debate in view of Japan’s long-term demographic development in recent years.

"Japan has experienced labour shortages since the late 1960s....The present study is an attempt to analyse the Japanese government's response to circumvent labour shortages. It focuses on two aspects: perception of Japanese society towards the increasing presence of foreign workers in Japan and associated problems; and measures taken by the government to overcome labour crunch. These aspects are examined within the [framework of an] increasing flow of foreigners to Japan during the past decades." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)

This article aims to elaborate on how foreign workers in Japan’s restaurants embody skills and knowledge on omotenashi, a concept of hospitality rooted in Japanese culture, and to discuss various factors influencing the process. The qualitative data were collected from in-depth interviews with fifteen non-Japanese workers and observations in dozens of restaurants across Japan, between March 2018 and March 2020. This study argues that employment and training in restaurants contribute to the embodiment of omotenashi among foreign workers, while allowing them to adapt and reshape the existing forms of omotenashi through the use of cultural skills. Overall, this study suggests that omotenashi is a form of socially constructed practice in Japan’s service industry that is transferable to a different cultural context through skill training and practice. The findings invite broader discussions on how culture-related skills are practised and socially constructed.

Employing a survey method to explore attitudes towards foreign workers in Japan, we uncover evidence that upends the conventional wisdom that “socio-tropic values” are anchored in perceptions of threat. Building a new typology that differentiates among native-born citizens who value or fear foreigners for their expected effects on the economic and cultural dimensions, we find that Japanese corporate managers, especially in labor-scarce sectors, appreciate the positive effects of foreign labor more than they dread the dilution of cultural beliefs and practices that underpinned the fabled Japanese labor force. This finding is significant because, even without becoming whole-hearted multi-culturalists, a positive disposition of Japanese corporate management towards foreign workers could signal a shift in policy. Although ethnocentrists remain in Japan (as elsewhere), the views of the business community are likely to have more bearing on government policy than those of other groups.