ABSTRACT This study examines how migrant workers in Japan move across national borders and obtain jobs in the destination country. While recent research has paid increasing attention to migration infrastructures, referring to networks of private intermediaries often operating in coordination with institutions of state governments, conventional studies continue to emphasize the enduring roles of co-ethnic ties in facilitating transnational mobility and job matching. Meanwhile, drawing on the 2018 Survey of Life and Work among Foreign Citizens in Japan, based on a two-stage cluster sampling method, this study provides a comprehensive assessment of how different job-search methods relate to labor market outcomes. Furthermore, we shed light on how the place of education works in transnational mobility and job-matching processes. The results show that migrants educated overseas were more likely to rely on co-ethnic ties and private intermediaries when seeking their first job in Japan, while those educated in Japan tended to use formal job-search channels similar to native Japanese workers. We also find that reliance on co-ethnic ties and private intermediaries was associated with entry into unskilled and precarious jobs, whereas formal job-search methods are linked to better labor market outcomes.

ABSTRACT This paper examines the current state of male migrant integration in Japan. While existing research concentrates on female marital migration, the intersection of migration and marriage for men remains underexplored. Our fieldwork-based research focuses on the integration experiences of Russian-speaking men from former Soviet Union countries, who are married to Japanese women and reside in Japan. We examine aspects of men’s integration, including residential status, employment opportunities, family gender dynamics, ethnic and local affiliations, and self-identification. By exploring these at the intersections of immigration regime, marriage, and gender, we unravel the nuanced layers of integration for this specific demographic within the structural, social, and cultural frameworks of Japanese society. Adapting established integration models, we underscore the factors influencing the integration of married migrant men. One such newly identified factor is the “unacknowledged dependency” of men on their local wives. The study informs academic discourse by capturing males’ migration processes and integration practices within Japan’s immigration regime. It also seeks to enrich migrant policy discussions by advocating for comprehensive integration programs and policies. This is critical to address challenges posed by diverse migrant populations and offers insights to inform inclusive approaches for migrant integration in Japan.

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, the number of white-collar migrants employed in Japan’s corporate headquarters has increased notably. While previous research underscores the challenges Japanese firms face in attracting and retaining foreign professionals, the rapidly growing presence of skilled migrants calls for renewed attention to Japan’s continued appeal. Focusing on young, college-educated Taiwanese women, this study examines why they move from a society ranked as having higher gender equality to one ranked with lower gender equality, and how they navigate their careers within Japan’s gendered corporate structures. Drawing on multiple rounds of semi-structured interviews with 22 participants conducted between 2017 and 2020, the analysis situates their experiences at the intersection of gendered employment and skilled migration. The findings show that their decisions to pursue cross-border careers are influenced by Japan’s relaxed immigration policies for high-skilled migrants and corporate initiatives promoting women’s participation. In addition, distinctive employment practices—favoring new graduates and de-emphasizing academic specialization—further attracted women from humanities and social science backgrounds facing limited career options in Taiwan. This paper argues that Taiwanese college-educated women exercise contingent forms of agency in negotiating gender, work and mobility through transnational careers. While participants valued Japan’s employment stability and structured career paths, they also encountered enduring gender hierarchies and divisions of labor that constrained professional advancement. Through subtle forms of cultural negotiation—balancing pressures to assimilate into Japanese workplace norms with efforts to preserve individual agency—they sought to develop careers compatible with persistent gender role expectations shared across Taiwan and Japan.

ABSTRACT Over the past two decades, government reports have consistently advocated for transforming Japanese society into a high-tech utopia. This vision is not new, as such language has long influenced Japanese policy on technoscience. However, in recent years, discussions around the potential and projected impact of AI and robotics have reached unprecedented levels of aspiration in Japan. Specifically, social robots for elderly care are increasingly promoted as solutions to Japan’s pressing socio-economic challenges stemming from its rapidly aging population. This paper critically examines the narratives crafted by the Japanese government regarding the future of so-called intelligent and caring machines. It does so by analysing reports from research and development initiatives, including Society 5.0 and the Moonshot R&D Program. It is also informed by the author’s ethnographic fieldwork conducted in robotics labs across Japan between 2022 and 2024. The analysis is grounded in the theoretical framework of an anthropology of the future, critically deconstructing these salvific narratives. Particular attention is given to the future orientations such hyped narratives create and their implications for care practices and society. By questioning the urgency-driven rhetoric behind technocare developments in Japan – which often overlooks end-users’ perspectives, views, and values – the paper highlights significant ethical and societal issues surrounding these approaches to innovation.

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes how Japan’s system of international education policy and student labor migration has been successively institutionalized over the past four-plus decades. Japan started admitting international students in earnest following the launch of the 100,000 International Student Plan of 1983, which has been revised twice since. While the country has managed to hit its numerical targets for international student admittance, the Japanese system has achieved this in the context of admitting primarily privately funded international students, a majority of which need to work to sustain their life in Japan. In 2019, 95% of international students were privately funded, accounting for over 19% of the total foreign workforce. There is also a subset of foreign students who can arguably be classified as labor migrants, in addition to well-documented cases in which student workers have been forced into precarious positions. Utilizing the framework of incremental institutional change from the field of historical institutionalism, I identify three distinct periods of policymaking: displacement (1983–1988), layering (1988–2007), and conversion (2008–2019). Through these subsequent processes of institutionalization, I outline how Japan’s system has developed into a tiered system featuring mostly university-level students with primarily educational aspirations and a subset of non-university level students that come to Japan for the primary purpose of labor. In the concluding section, I analyze recent policy developments and discuss the possibility of Japan entering another period of institutional layering to address the most pressing issues with the current system.

ABSTRACT Life insurance established itself in Japan as a domestic industry by the end of the Meiji period. A unique feature of the early years of the industry was the emergence of Buddhist-related life insurance companies from 1894 onwards. However, by 1914, these companies had either gone out of business or restructured and ceased their affiliation with Buddhism. Japanese research explains the entry of Buddhist sects into life insurance with reference to their financial needs, while their disappearance 20 years later is attributed to lack of technical expertise and weak corporate governance. This paper further adds to the understanding of the 20-year episode in two ways. Pointing to the wider socio-cultural and political context, it shows how the decision to engage with life insurance fit the overall strategies of Buddhist sects at the time to position themselves as an institution aligned with and contributing to the country’s modernization goals. By analyzing the marketing challenges that life insurance companies confronted, the paper also clarifies how the affiliation with Buddhism could constitute a competitive advantage during the early years of the industry, and why this advantage diminished as the industry developed. The analysis explains both the appearance and disappearance of Buddhist life insurance companies. It also sheds light on the role and shifting sources of trust in the evolution of markets.

ABSTRACT This study questions whether job changes improve the subjective well-being of young Japanese workers exposed to workplace harassment. Workplace harassment is prevalent in Japan as well as in other societies worldwide and can be conceptualised as an interaction emerging from negative social ties. Job change can also be regarded as an action to relocate from negative workmate social networks to better networks. Using unique longitudinal survey data focusing on Japanese youth and fixed effect models with a double-demeaning interaction effect, we investigated whether the harassed employees could improve their subjective well-being after one year through job changes. A series of data analyses revealed that the positive effect of job change on subjective well-being was greater among those harassed at work, and this tendency is more salient for men. Meanwhile, harassment exposure, job changes, and their interaction had no statistically significant effect on monthly income as an indicator of economic attainment. Based on these empirical findings, this study tentatively concludes that the external labour market may facilitate positive youth career formation in contemporary Japan.

ABSTRACT This paper explores Japan and Germany’s initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, it compares Prime Minister Abe’s and Chancellor Merkel’s leadership through the lens of crisis management to explore why some leaders had more effective responses than others in terms of maintaining trust in the government and public support. We argue that Merkel was more effective in managing the crisis compared to Abe due to new institutions created to coordinate between the local and national level as well as the execution of a policymaking narrative that focused on science and solidarity. Abe’s approach was hampered due to long-established structural inefficiencies in the bureaucracy as well as a policymaking narrative that called for cooperation and self-restraint without responding to public concerns. This comparison adds to our understanding of the impact of leaders on public policymaking in times of uncertainty as well as to the important relationship between leaders and institutions.

ABSTRACT Often essentialized as a national tradition, ethic, or even spirit, Japanese traditional craft has been less discussed in terms of its practical aspects, such as promotional activities, which are becoming increasingly important in the growing uncertainties of an aging and shrinking craft scene. The recent engagement of Tamba potters in organizing collective public events highlights this missing aspect. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Japan in 2018–19, this article explores potters’ changing perceptions of tradition as they seek its practical value in the sustainability of the local craft industry. On the surface, their public performance of traditional skills appears to strengthen their ties to the past. A closer look, however, reveals that doing so with a collective awareness of the practical value of tradition fosters their sense of agency in shaping the future. Through the notion of collective traditionalism, I show how tradition becomes an ingredient in the reconfiguration of the future.