New Immigration Policy and Unskilled Foreign Workers in Japan

Abstract

This paper examines Japans de facto admission of unskilled foreign workers and the changing complexion of that work force since the mid-1980s. Included in the discussion are push and pull factors behind the massive arrival of workers from developing countries; the 1989 Reform; the different groups of arriving workers...; and the implications for Japans immigration policy. Underlying Japans ad hoc response to the arrival of unskilled foreign workers is a fear of disrupting social homogeneity a poorly conceived policy regarding the labor shortage faced by small-scale employers and a lack of recognition of contemporary patterns of migration worldwide. (EXCERPT)