C 13206 ISSN 0721-5231 Nr. 124 | Juli 2012 International Labor Migration to Japan: Current Models and Future Outlook Japan in the “Global War for Talent”: Changing Concepts of Valuable Foreign Workers and Their Consequences Vocalizing the “I” Word: Proposals and Initiatives on Immigration to Japan from the LDP and Beyond Gender and Ethnicity in Japan’s Health-Care Labor Market Conceptualizing Transnational Migration of Care Workers: Between “Skilled” and “Unskilled” From Temporary Migrant to Integrated Resident: Local Government Approaches to Migrant Integration in the Tokyo Metropolis Networks in Transition: Migration Decisions in the Life Course of Highly Skilled Chinese in Japan Ambiguous Concepts and Unintended Consequences: Rethinking Skilled Migration in View of Chinese Migrants’ Economic Outcomes in Japan Immigration Challenges in Japan and Germany Begründet von Günter Diehl und Werner Draguhn Editor Guest Editor Günter Schucher Gabriele Vogt Editorial Manager Benedikt Skowasch Editorial Assistants Yingjun Gao Amanda Kovacs Proof Reading Carl Carter Editorial Board International Board P. Christian Hauswedell Sanjaya Baru, Indien Claudia Derichs Anne Booth, England Christian Wagner Chu Yun-han, Taiwan ROC Günter Schucher Lowell Dittmer, USA Andreas Ufen Reinhard Drifte, England Verena Blechinger-Talcott Park Sung-Hoon, Südkorea Margot Schüller Anthony Reid, Singapur Ulrike Schaede, USA Jusuf Wanandi, Indonesien INHALT ASIEN 124 (Juli 2012) EDITORIAL A Focus on Asian Autocracies (Patrick Köllner) 5 THEMENSCHWERPUNKT International Labor Migration to Japan: Current Models and Future Outlook 8 (Gabriele Vogt, Ruth Achenbach) Japan in the “Global War for Talent”: Changing Concepts of Valuable 27 Foreign Workers and Their Consequences (David Chiavacci) Vocalizing the “I” Word: Proposals and Initiatives on Immigration to Japan 48 from the LDP and Beyond (Glenda S. Roberts) Gender and Ethnicity in Japan’s Health-Care Labor Market 69 (Gabriele Vogt, Phoebe Holdgrün) Conceptualizing Transnational Migration of Care Workers: Between “Skilled” 95 and “Unskilled” (Reiko Ogawa) From Temporary Migrant to Integrated Resident: Local Government 115 Approaches to Migrant Integration in the Tokyo Metropolis (Stephen Robert Nagy) Networks in Transition: Migration Decisions in the Life Course of Highly 137 Skilled Chinese in Japan (Ruth Achenbach) Ambiguous Concepts and Unintended Consequences: Rethinking Skilled 159 Migration in View of Chinese Migrants’ Economic Outcomes in Japan (Gracia Liu-Farrer) Immigration Challenges in Japan and Germany (Dietrich Thränhardt) 180 KONFERENZBERICHTE Zwei Konferenzen zum 150. Geburtstag von Rabindranath Tagore 198 (Arabella Unger) Jahrestagung der China-AG, Institut für Sinologie an der LMU München, 201 04. Februar 2012 (Katharina Markgraf) Samoa: 50 Jahre Unabhängigkeit. Konferenz zur Jahrestagung des deutschen 202 Pazifik-Netzwerks, Berlin, 10.-12. Februar 2012 (Andreas Holtz) Sozialwissenschaftlicher China-Workshop „Iserlohn 2012“, Iserlohn, 204 11.-12. Februar 2012 (René Trappel) Mittelmeer oder Pazifik? Europas Platz im asiatisch-pazifischen Jahrhundert, 206 Berliner Colloquium, Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik, 20.-22. März 2012 (Michael Summerer) 14th Jaina Studies Symposium: Biodiversity Conservation and Animal Rights: 207 Religious and Philosophical Perspectives, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, Centre for Jaina Studies, 21.-22. März 2012 (Arabella Unger) Diskriminierung in Indien, Gemeindehaus der Ev. Dreifaltigkeitsgemeinde, 209 Frankfurt am Main, 19. April 2012 (Jona Aravind Dohrmann) New Mobilities and Evolving Identities: Islam, Youth and Gender in South 211 and Southeast Asia, Humboldt-Universität und Freie Universität zu Berlin, 20.-21. April 2012 (Nadja-Christina Schneider) INHALT ASIEN 124 (Juli 2012) REZENSIONEN Wilhelm Hofmeister (Hg.): Asia and Europe. Moving Towards a Common 213 Agenda (Armin Müller) Malcolm McKinnon: Asian Cities. Globalization, Urbanization and Nation- 214 Building (Katharina Corleis) Tatjana Thimm, Walter Freyer (Hgg.): Indien-Tourismus. Märkte Strukturen 215 Tendenzen (Dorith Altenburg) Michael von Hauff (Hg.): Indien. Herausforderungen und Perspektiven 216 (Pierre Gottschlich) Akifumi Kuchiki, Masatsugu Tsuji (Hgg.): Industrial Clusters, Upgrading and 219 Innovation in East Asia (Peter Mayer) Gotelind Müller (Hg.): Designing History in East Asian Textbooks. Identity 220 Politics and Transnational Aspirations (Ylva Monschein) Mark O’Neill, Tzu Chi: Serving with Compassion (Lukas Pokorny) 222 Shu-Yun Ma: Shareholding System Reform in China. Privatizing by Groping 224 for Stones (Matthias Stepan) Kimberley Ens Manning, Felix Wemheuer (Hgg.): Eating Bitterness. New 225 Perspectives on China’s Great Leap Forward and Famine (Martin Böke) Björn Alpermann: China's Cotton Industry. Economic Transformation and 227 State Capacity (René Trappel) Aiming Wang: Church in China. Faith, Ethics, Structure. The Heritage of the 230 Reformation for the Future of the Church in China (Manfred Hutter) Suk Hi Kim, Terence Roehrig, Bernhard Seliger (Hgg.): The Survival of 231 North Korea. Essays on Strategy, Economics and International Relations (Nick Gemmell) FORSCHUNG – LEHRE – INFORMATIONEN Konferenzankündigungen: August bis Oktober 2012 233 NEUERE LITERATUR 235 AUTORINNEN UND AUTOREN DIESER AUSGABE 239 ASIEN 124 (Juli 2012), S. 69-94 Gender and Ethnicity in Japan’s Health-Care Labor Market Gabriele Vogt, Phoebe Holdgrün Summary As the socialization, privatization, and internationalization of health-caregiving proceeds, in many industrialized nations the health-care business, which was often a gendered labor market to begin with, is now evolving as a labor market at the intersection of gender and ethnicity. This paper addresses a bipolar concept of invisibility—and potential vulnerability—of female labor migrants through the lens of gender and ethnicity in the health-care labor market in Japan. It does so by introducing the roles both dimensions play in Japan’s labor market in general and in the health-care sector in particular. Juxtaposing two different groups, namely longtime foreign residents of Japan entering the health-care business as a second career option on the one hand and newly arrived health-caregivers from Southeast Asia on the other hand, the paper first highlights the commonalities and differences in the way gender and ethnicity impact the structures of life and work in Japan for the two groups. Secondly, the paper looks at the interlocking dimension of gender and ethnicity and provides some insights into the intersectionality of these factors in Japan’s labor world. Keywords: Japan, labor market, health care, migration, gender, ethnicity, intersectionality 1. Introduction Japan’s population is aging at unprecedented speed. How the nation is coping with the manifold challenges that this development poses to an already strained economy, to politics in a state of seemingly endless turmoil, and to a society that is looking out for new values and norms to provide it with stability in a transformed globalized world has already been the subject of countless academic and non-academic publications.1 There is one aspect of the impact of demographic change that is particularly affected by the three main demographic variables of population aging (mortality), population reproduction (fertility), and population mobility (migration), namely health care for the elderly. The more a population ages, the higher the share 1 For a comprehensive account on the many impacts of Japan’s demographic change, see Coulmas, Conrad, Schad-Seifert and Vogt (2008), for example. Also note the special report in The Economist (2010/11/18). 70 Gabriele Vogt, Phoebe Holdgrün of those potentially in need of elderly health care and the lower the share of the working-age population and those who can potentially provide health care to the elderly members of society. Moreover, in many industrialized nations, elderly health care becomes an increasingly pressing issue not only because of the sheer rise in the population’s median age, but also due to a shift of reproductive work such as elderly health care from within the families into the realm of public institutions and private markets consciously chosen by family members. With the demand for health-caregivers catering to the needs of the elderly rising rapidly at a time when the pool of caregivers is shrinking, migration—and in particular international labor migration—comes into the picture as a potential solution to this crisis. In fact, population aging in many industrialized nations has provided a strong, new “pull factor” in international migration flows,2 and the international migration of health-caregivers has long become big business on a global scale (Kingma 2006; Piper 2005: 35–36). As the socialization, privatization, and internationalization of health-caregiving proceeds, in many industrialized nations the health-care business, which was often a gendered labor market to begin with, is now evolving as a labor market at the intersection of gender and ethnicity.3 This paper addresses a bipolar concept of invisibility (Brettell 2000: 111)—and potential vulnerability—of female labor migrants through the lens of gender and ethnicity in the health-care labor market in Japan. It does so by introducing the roles both dimensions play in Japan’s labor market in general and in the health-care sector in particular. Juxtaposing two different groups, namely longtime foreign residents of Japan entering the health-care