Rethinking student migration in Japan as a non-immigration country in the context of aging society and immigration
Daesung Kwon
Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University, Japan
Abstract
Japan has been averse to immigration due to the strong belief of homogeneity
in terms of ethnicity and culture. Although Japan has already turned into
a de facto country of immigration, immigration is continuously a radical
topic in the society. However, undergoing a serious demographic transformation
marked by its rapid population aging and decline, it seems to be moving
forward more liberalized and settlement-oriented immigration policy-making.
In particular, to revitalize its stagnant economy and govern the third
largest economy in world, the government understand the urgency and significance
of foreign human resources. In this situation it has more proactively been
enticing qualified foreign migrant workers, and it also attempts to recruit
more international students through internationalization of higher education
to enhance its national competitiveness, and utilize international students
as temporary and skilled laborers. Despite the attempts, yet various policy
initiatives continue to underperform. While there must be various factors
behind the underperformance problems such as socio-cultural and institutional
factors, the question of how the Japanese government and society perceive
immigrants and immigration is central. Against this backdrop, examining
the reasons behind Japan’s unwillingness to allow mass migration, this
study critically reviews Japan’s policy initiatives to utilize foreign
laborers instead of a formal immigration program. Furthermore, this study
attempts to rethink student migration in Japan as an alternative to mass
migration in the context of aging society and settlement immigration. The
result of this study may be to point to ways in which Japanese government
may strategically review the recruitment and retention of international
students through both human capital and academic-gate approach, and use
student migrants practically as a source of skilled workers to address
its demographic and economic problems, as well as a means of creating a
genuinely multicultural society.
Keywords: Japan, immigration, aging society, migration policies, highly
skilled migration, skilled migration, student migration, foreign students.