"Migrant Labor in Japan’s Agriculture: New Schemes and Social Inclusion"

Roberts, Glenda S. and Noriko Fujita

Japan and International Migration: Recent Developments, Emerging Dynamics, Ludwig-maximilians-universitat, Munchen

Ludwig-maximilians-universitat, Munchen

Online (Zoom)

This study queries newcomer migrant labor in Japan, from the perspectives of various stakeholders: the government, farmers and other employers, and local communities. Migrant labor schemes have existed in Japan under the guise of homeland visitation (Brazilian Japanese workers since 1990) and ‘Technical Interns and Trainees’ (TITP, widely understood as short-term workers in the guise of ‘training’, since 1993). The latest scheme, however, is a genuine ‘front-door’ short-term labor scheme. Former Prime Minister Abe insisted strongly and repeatedly that this is not a move toward opening the country for immigration. How do the stakeholders see it? What sort of social inclusion, if any, do they envision for these newcomer migrant workers? Do local communities see these workers as desirable or as threats, and to what extent do they influence how the labor schemes are operated? How is the new system coordinated in tandem with TITP? We seek to answer these questions from our initial fieldwork in Aichi and Kyoto prefectures in 2019 and 2020, tracing from pre-to post-inception of the new scheme.