2018 Volume 68 Issue 4 Pages 514-530
In this paper, we explore the specific aspects of Japan's new system for foreigners conducting housekeeping services (FCHS) in the National Strategy Special Zones of Kanagawa, Osaka, Tokyo, and Hyogo, within the context of Japan's foreign worker acceptance system from 2017 onwards. We examine this case in light of previous studies on female migrant workers against the background of migration theory, and analyze the concentration of power among stakeholders in the new power elite through the process of establishing this system at the macro and mezzo levels.
The Japanese Government planned FCHS to raise women's employment rates and ensure “women's success” as part of Japan's Revitalization Strategy (2014). This initiative was started to improve the “infrastructure of living” for initial acceptance of “advanced human resources.” This project is supposed to expand to living support outside of long-term care insurance after enforcement. Along with Japan's new governance-type immigration policy, some new power elites are responsible for developing and enforcing it; this policy is different from conventional foreign acceptance in two major ways. First, reproductive labor is being introduced to enhance international competitiveness, to further technical innovation, and to stimulate economic promotion in an economically mature country. However, foreign workers' acceptance into the production labor departments of the Special Economic Zones is usually focused on the “production area.” Secondly, accepting domestic workers signifies a turning point in terms of changing policy: whether to not accept foreign unskilled labor, or to change the legal position of reproductive and domestic workers in Japan.
