Skilled or unskilled?: The reconfiguration of migration policies in Japan

Abstract

While Japan has long been perceived as a country with restrictive immigration policies, it has been rapidly widening its immigration gates through various policy reforms in the past decade. The most prominent policy shift in Japan took place in 2018 when the government decided to officially open its labour market to migrants who work in 14 occupational sectors, including agriculture, elder care and construction, which used to be considered ‘unskilled’ and 'semi-skilled' in previous migration schemes. This study analyses how the major shifts in Japan’s migration policies have been introduced through the redefinition of ‘skills’ and ‘skilled migrants’. In doing so, it integrates the scholarly debates on immigration policymaking in Japan and the literature on the conceptualisation of skills. By reviewing the development of skilled migration policies and some impactful discourses driven by global, national and regional forces, this study argues that the ambiguous nature of ‘skills’ and the multi-level merits as outcomes have facilitated the major policy transformation in Japan.