Japan’s Foreign Worker Policy: Divergence, Convergence, and Fragmentation

• In Event: Foreign Workers or Future Citizens in East Asia?

Abstract

This paper explores the contentious politics of foreign labor admission in East Asian democracies, with a specific focus on Japan. It establishes a typology of admission schemes for low-skilled foreign workers and traces the timeline of policy development. This trajectory defies explanation within dominant accounts of foreign labor admission, as well as the conventional ethnocentric perspective on Japan’s immigration policy. Drawing on extensive field research, the paper highlights the pivotal role of state actors, particularly executive power, in shaping policy reforms. Moreover, it argues that evolving humanitarian standards, as interpreted by policymakers, increasingly influence Japan’s instrumental approach, which necessitates new policy trade-offs and creates a potential to reposition Japan as a regional leader in this policy domain. By considering Japan from a comparative regional perspective, the paper contributes a middle-range theory of foreign labor admission in democratic East Asia.

Author

• Konrad Kalicki, National University of Singapore