1. Japan’s immigration policy & the highly skilled
HÉCTOR GOLDAR PERROTE
WLU – Geography MA Candidate

2. Background to this paper
Demographic change – Immigration policy
Policy mobility
Background to this paper

3. outline A) Highly Skilled Migrants in Japan B) Policy Mobility
C) Policy implementation and barriers to success

4. Discourse, layers, and truth

5. Highly selective, cautious, progressive Incrementalism

6. (a) FOREIGN TALENT IN JAPAN

7. Expected to:
Contribute to the country’s economy because of their skills (post-Fordist, technology oriented, human capital intensive, thrives on value-added exports)
Create new demands and employment because of their purchasing power
Be a net gain in terms of taxation and social spending
Spur productivity
Fill particular labour gaps
Help achieve Japan’s growth targets and be a part of larger economic integration processes

8. Point system and “highly skilled foreign professional” status of residence
Targets corporate sector executives, investors, university professors, scientists, lawyers, doctors, and IT specialists, among others
Requirements have been eased in a number of occasions since 2012 (e.g. access to PR after three years)
Successful applicants obtain preferential immigration treatment

9. (B) Policy mobility
“Detail how Japan is interacting with other national engagements and international organizations as for the design of its immigration policy, be it through policy learning processes or collaborative immigration policy management”

10. Learning processes Not inward looking; “a country of borrowers”
Three main forces (1) Other schemes’ policy outcomes
shaping these processes: (2) Identity dynamics (3) International treaties
HFSP is a hybrid system (Green, 2012):
Potential candidates need an employer (market-based systems, like the American)
Eligibility is assessed through a point system (skill-based systems, like the Canadian)
Permanent residency not offered upon arrival (US, UK; unlike Canada or AUS).
Green, D. (2014). Japan’s Highly Skilled Foreign Professional Visa: An Early Assessment. Meiji Journal of Political Science and Economics.

11. Collaborative policy management?
Western countries develop multi-layered institutions and heavily rely on other states, bilateral agreements, international organizations, and other actors beyond the state (Tarumoto, 2014).
No official framework for collaboration – especially regarding “admission”
(1) Belonging to supranational entities (2) Sovereignty (3) Axioms and “nationhood” regulatory principle
Geiger, M. and Pecoud, A. Migration, Development, and the “Migration-Development Nexus”. Population, Space, and Place, volume
Tarumoto, H. (2012) Towards a new migration management: Care Immigration Policy in Japan. The New Politics of International Mobility

12. Convergence?

13. (c) Policy implementation and barriers to success
Amendments = (1) Japan’s eagerness to attract foreign talent
(2) Japan’s inability to do so * Quotas
Some critique the vagueness of the policy and the lack of clarity (Green, 2012)
However, most of the challenges lay outside the policy realm (Oishi, 2012). Japan seems to be not attractive enough:
Low income/ Japanese Language / Work-life balance /Workplace culture and practices /gender inequality / integration concerns / Etc.
Competition
Oishi, N. (2012). The limits of immigration policies: The challenges of highly skilled migration in Japan. American Behavioral Scientist, 56(8),

14. Thanks!