THE RHETORIC OF THE FOREIGN WORKER PROBLEM IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN by Junya Morooka Dokkyo University, B.A., 1996 Wake Forest University, M.A., 1998 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2006 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Junya Morooka It was defended on February 22, 2006 and approved by Peter Simonson, Ph.D., Department of Communication Akiko Hashimoto, Ph.D., Department of Sociology Gordon Mitchell, Ph.D., Department of Communication Lester Olson, Ph.D., Department of Communication Dissertation Director: Peter Simonson, Ph.D., Department of Communication ii Copyright © by Junya Morooka 2006 iii THE RHETORIC OF THE FOREIGN WORKER PROBLEM IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN Junya Morooka, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2006 Abstract The dissertation conducts a rhetorical analysis of Japan’s foreign worker problem from the early 1980s to 2005. To this end, it provides three episodes in a two-decade case study in media representations of “illegal” foreign workers, specifically the emergence and the dominant framing of the foreign worker problem in the media and one organized resistance to the dominant framing of the problem. Chapter 2 provides an overview of Japan’s foreign worker problem to set contexts for rhetorical criticism in subsequent chapters. Specifically, it outlines Japan’s immigration policies, offers a historical account of its foreign worker problem, and supplies statistical data to document the recent trends and current status of labor migration in Japan. Chapter 3 explores the gendered nature of Japan’s foreign worker problem. A distinctive feature of the migratory pattern in postwar Japan is that those who came to Japan for work initially consisted overwhelmingly of women. Nevertheless, their influx was not cast as a foreign worker problem; instead, it was generally framed as a peculiar issue of Japayuki-san. Importantly, the term Japayuki-san functioned to fixate the stereotyped image of female migrants as young sex workers from poor Asian countries. iv Chapter 4 demonstrates that the popular media, through a barrage of alarming crime reports interspersed with frightening visual graphics, play a critical role in constructing the public knowledge that “illegal aliens” are posing an unprecedented security threat to Japan. Chapter 5 underscores the importance of collective symbolic struggles by investigating how overstaying foreigners, activists, and academics collaborated during a special residence permission campaign from September 1999 through February 2000. The chapter also suggests that sustained and favorable media attention was crucial in bringing the campaign to success. In conclusion, the dissertation stresses the need for contesting the very language used for framing the foreign worker debate. Under the current discursive frame, foreign workers are inevitably reduced to economic units, which in turn limits the scope of the controversy to assessments of economic benefits and costs from accepting foreign workers. A rhetorical move needs to be made from “foreign worker” discourse to “immigration” discourse so that full-blown discussions about immigration could take place. v TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................................viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................................ xi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................................... xii 1.0 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 CLARIFYING KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS.......................................................... 2 1.3 RESEARCH DESIGN.................................................................................................... 5 1.4 CHAPTER ORGANIZATION..................................................................................... 25 1.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY............................................................................................... 32 2.0 JAPAN’S FOREIGN WORKER PROBLEM IN HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ............................................................................... 34 2.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 34 2.2 JAPAN’S OFFICIAL IMMIGRATION POLICIES .................................................... 34 2.3 A HISTORY OF THE FOREIGN WORKER PROBLEM IN MODERN JAPAN..... 36 2.4 RECENT TRENDS AND CURRENT STATUS OF LABOR MIGRATION IN JAPAN .......................................................................................................................... 50 2.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY............................................................................................... 56 3.0 THE “BEGINNING” OF THE FOREIGN WORKER PROBLEM IN JAPAN: FORGOTTEN FEMALE MIGRANTS............................................................................... 57 3.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 57 3.2 KARAYUKI-SAN, JAPAYUKI-SAN, AND FEMALE FOREIGN WORKERS............ 61 3.3 POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIO-CULTURAL FORCES BEHIND THE JAPAYUKI-SAN PHENOMENON............................................................................... 65 3.4 TRACING THE “BEGINNING” OF THE FOREIGN WORKER PROBLEM.......... 70 3.5 JAPAYUKI AND GAIKOKUJIN RŌDŌSHA (FOREIGN WORKERS) AS TERMINISTIC SCREENS........................................................................................... 90 3.6 MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF FEMALE MIGRANTS SINCE THE 1990s .... 107 3.7 CHAPTER SUMMARY............................................................................................. 115 4.0 CRIMINALIZING “ILLEGAL ALIENS”: THE MEDIA HYPE OF ORGANIZED AND VICIOUS CRIMES BY “ILLEGAL” CHINESE MIGRANTS.............................. 119 4.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 119 4.2 ANALYZING CRIME REPORTS—STUART HALL, ET AL.’S POLICING THE CRISIS......................................................................................................................... 124 vi 4.3 INTENSIFYING CONTROL MEASURES............................................................... 128 4.4 TAKING A CRITICAL LOOK AT OFFICIAL CRIME STATISTICS.................... 134 4.5 OFFICIAL ACCOUNTS OF CRIMES BY “ILLEGAL ALIENS”........................... 143 4.6 MEDIA PORTRAYALS OF CRIMES BY “ILLEGAL” CHINESE MIGRANTS .. 152 4.7 A CASE STUDY: THE NEWS COVERAGE OF THE MATSUMOTO FAMILY MURDER INCIDENT................................................................................................ 184 4.8 GROWING ANTI-IMMIGRANT SENTIMENT ...................................................... 191 4.9 CHAPTER SUMMARY............................................................................................. 193 5.0 SOCIAL ACTIVISM ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE: A CASE OF THE CAMPAIGN FOR SPECIAL RESIDENCE PERMISSION FROM SEPTEMBER 1999 THROUGH FEBRUARY 2000................................................................................ 198 5.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 198 5.2 THE FOREIGN WORKER PROBLEM SINCE THE 1990s .................................... 201 5.3 APFS: ITS HISTORY, GOALS, AND ACTIVITITES ............................................. 205 5.4 REQUIREMENTS FOR SPECIAL RESIDENCE PERMISSION............................ 212 5.5 PATH TOWARD COLLECTIVE CAMPAIGNING FOR SPECIAL RESIDENCE PERMISSION...................................................................................... 216 5.6 CHRONOLOGY OF THE SPECIAL RESIDENCE PERMISSION CAMPAIGN .. 218 5.7 MEDIA STRATEGIES—FIGHTING WITH AND AGAINST THE MEDIA......... 223 5.8 RHETORICAL STRATEGIES IN THE SPECIAL RESIDENCE PERMISSION CAMPAIGN ............................................................................................................... 231 5.9 COLLECTIVE, COLLABORATIVE, AND CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT BY RESEARCHERS ........................................................................................................ 243 5.10 RECONCILING CRITICAL REFLEXIVITY WITH COLLECTIVE ACTION...... 254 5.11 CHAPTER SUMMARY............................................................................................. 259 6.0 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................. 265 6.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 265 6.2 CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND IMPLICATIONS................................................... 268 6.3 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH.......................................................... 273 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................................