Multicultural coexistence without immigrants: Foreign labor and contemporary Japan

• In Event: 2429 - Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Rountable 15

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the number of foreign residents in Japan has rapidly increased. Contrary to the traditional monolithic view of the nation, Japan today is becoming one of the major immigrant-receiving countries in the world. The need for an increase in foreign labor has been attributed to labor shortages attendant on the low national birthrate and a rapidly ageing population. While the Japanese government maintains that "immigrants" are not filling labor shortages, foreign workers are being introduced by a variety of means and are a significant factor in the Japanese economy through an open "back door." Japan's industries are no longer sustainable without foreign labor, but such workers are utilized as an expedient and disposable labor force that is ultimately considered outside the parameters of the nation. Such attitudes parallel the rejection of the concept of "immigrants" in the official discourse. At the same time, a growing number of foreigners in Japan are opting for permanent settlement, necessitating wider consideration of acceptance and coexistence. Government insistence on a policy of "no acceptance of immigrants," alongside the actual lived experience of a growing multiculturalism in Japan, reflects present social contradictions--between the social reality of foreign workers and official policies concerning immigration.

Author

• Noriko Matsumoto, University of Vermont