New Stage of Migration in Japan: Globization of Care Work

Event details
Speaker : Dr Reiko Ogawa
               Kyushu University
Date      : Monday, 14 September 2009
Time      : 11:00am - 12:00noon
Venue    : AS4/03-28 (JS Meeting Room)

Abstract

The influx of immigrants in Japan began in the 1980s during the rapid economic development but the foreign population remains remarkably low compared to the other developed countries due to a strict immigration policy. However, the rapid demographic change of a shrinking population and aging society is bringing about new discussions on migration. The immigration issue has gradually started to appear in policy documents and the mass media gaining increasing public attention as well as reflecting certain anxieties. The recent establishment of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the Philippines and Indonesia has enabled the migration of nurses and caregivers for the first time to work in Japanese hospitals and nursing homes. Compared to earlier migrants who worked in factories or agricultural fields as ‘cheap labor,' the conditions of EPA have allowed the foreign care workers to work at the same level as the Japanese. This presentation will discuss some dilemmas in accepting foreign care workers in Japan.

About the speaker

Reiko Ogawa obtained an MA in International Relations at Sophia University and an MA in Cultural Anthropology at Leiden University. She has worked at the Asian Cultural Centre for UNESCO and the Japan Foundation, in the field of regional co-operation, human resource development and civil society in Asia. Some of her publications include “Changing Texture of Civic Engagement: The Potential and Limits of Popular Culture in Japan and Korean Relationship”, in Eds. Henk Vinken, Yuko Nishimura and Bruce White, Civic Engagement in Contemporary Japan (forthcoming) , “Migration of Southeast Asian Care Workers to Japan: Issues and Contestations”, Journal of Asian Women's Studies , 2008, and “In Search for New Partnership”, Eds. Tetsuo Yanagi, Encounter with Asia: Experiences from Academic Co-operation , Kyushu University Press, 2009.