Struggle with the “Japanese Healthcare System for Older Adults”

A Case of a Vietnamese Professional Care Worker

抄録

This article, through critically examining the life story of a Vietnamese refugee currently working in an assisted facility in Japan, excavates multiple and intersectional social labelling mechanisms for migrant growing old in a foreign country, as well as its influence on the individual level. The experience of the informant suggests a dilemma of labelling, between her identity as a member of ethnic minority in Japan, a social position assumed to be helped; and her identity as a health care professional for older adults recognized, a social position depending on the caregiving industry which rely on institutional labelling to obtain proper financial support by the government. Her dilemma indicates two cultural implications underlying the health care system for older adults in Japan, and more generally migrants participating in the system. In addition, she must face her own aging experience shaped by both her occupation and chronological age. On the other hand, she has to distance herself away from other Vietnamese older adults, and broadly other older adults in ethnic minorities to earn her own position of caring them as a healthcare professional.