Leiden University Student Repository

Woldhuis, Rosanne Sharòn (2020)

Understanding Japan's New ''Immigration Policy'': Conflicting Discourses and The Politics of Economic Migration

Master thesis | Asian Studies (120 EC) (MA)

Japan’s immigration policy seems to be a popular subject nowadays, due to Japan’s rapidly aging society. When looking at the subject of immigration regarding Japanese society, the common conception seems that Japan is reluctant to implement an immigration policy, being that the main reason for this reluctancy lies in Japan’s unique history. Over the years, changes have been made to Japan’s immigration policy. From introducing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) to entice foreign health care workers from the Philippines and Indonesia, to the development of a point-based system for highly skilled workers, to opening up more work sectors for foreign workers that enter under the newest visa category of ‘specified skills’ in 2019. This thesis examines the current (2019) immigration policy and analyses its most recent changes, in order to find out the political sentiments behind Japan's immigration policy. This thesis illustrates the difference between policy-making and policy-outcome.

Japan

immigration

economic migration

immigration policy

移民

Author

Woldhuis, Rosanne Sharòn

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Japanese

Supervisors

Veere, H. (Henny) van der

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en