The Politics of "Professional" Care Work in Japan: Labor Market Dynamics, Domestic Interests, and the Foreign Care Worker Question

• In Event: Japan's Labor Market and Social Policies in Transition

Abstract

Domestic political dynamics over securing a care workforce in Japan shape debates over relying on foreign care labor. Care workers for seniors remain extremely underpaid compared to workers in other sectors but they seek better treatment and improved social status as professionals. Some government policies aim to make care work more attractive by increasing the options for career advancement. The labor shortage and the goal of ensuring quality care are leading some employers to improve work conditions. The policy debates over relying on foreign care workers and, more indirectly, domestic workers intersect with complex domestic political dynamics concerning the care market, organized economic interests, and professional credentials.

This paper responds to global policy discussions of credentialing in the international mobility of health workers and to discussions of Japanese women’s position in the labor force. The paper will analyze the debates over foreign care workers and their requisite credentials as they reflect domestic care market conditions. It will assess how these debates reflect the economic interests and policy positions of Japanese care workers and their employers, compared to those of other groups such as intermediary businesses or government policymakers who support weakened requirements to enable recruiting adequate foreign workers. I argue that the focus on credentials reveals substantial convergence between employers’ and Japanese care workers’ preferences despite their differing economic positions. Yet market conditions obstruct these preferences. Japanese care workers remain at a disadvantage and perceive the entry of increased numbers of foreign care workers as a threat.

Author

• Deborah J. Milly, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University