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Migration scholars have frequently emphasized the tremendous increase in international migration in recent years. But several advanced industrial countries -- Japan in particular -- have relatively small numbers of foreign workers. Most of the literature on labor migration relates only to "positive cases," i.e., countries that have actually experienced significant inflows of foreign workers. This article proposes considering Japan as a "negative case" of labor migration in the post-World War II period. There has been much recent interest in the growing numbers of foreign workers in Japan, but what is most interesting about Japan is the fact that the numbers are relatively small (as a percentage of the labor force) and I that they began to increase so late, in comparison to other countries. The main goal of the paper is to advocate consideration of negative cases in migration research; a proper theory of labor migration would distinguish between positive and negative cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article comments on the paper, Illegal Migrant Laborers in Japan, by Steven A. Spencer, published in the Fall 1992 issue of International Migration Review. The paper purports to describe an emerging immigration problem or dilemma in Japan. But it is misleading in at least three respects: illegal foreign workers in Japan nowadays are not in fact a relatively large magnitude; the recent inflow of such workers represents not so much a long-term developing labor shortage as the short-run business book of the late 1980s in Japan; Japanese social practices in normal times can fill low-level jobs with native workers. Spencer takes off from the trends of illegal workers apprehended in Japan: only 1,889 persons in 1982 but rising rapidly to a peak of 16,608 in 1989. This is indeed a nearly ninefold jump; but the numbers are no more than trivial if measured against the whole Japanese labor force. Spencer misconstrues the appearance of a labor shortage in Japan during the last five years. Those were boom years when many companies hired furiously, and the labor gap was filled to some degree by part-time workers. In other word, Spencer has taken a temporary scarcity of labor in Japan to represent a long-term rising trend that is not happening.

The article discusses various research papers published in the previous issue of the journal " International Migration Review". "A note on the Surnames of Immigrant Officials in Nara Japan," by Cornelius J. Kiley. The use of names to indicate an ascribed alien status and its implications are explored for seventh and eighth century Japan. "Professional Immigrants: Do They Move On?," by B. S. Chansarkar. Semi and unskilled migrant workers in Britain are unlikely to return to their countries of origin. This article reviews the situation with regard to skilled and professional migrants and suggests that they return home or move on to other countries. "Racial Discrimination and White-collar Workers in Britain," by R. Jowell and P. Prescott-Clarke, collects data on job discrimination against Asian immigrants, West Indians and Cypriots in white-collar employment within four areas of high immigrant concentration: Nottingham-Derby-Leicester, Reading- Windsor-Slough, Birmingham-Wolver-hampton and Greater London.

The article presents information on industrialization, urbanization, migration, and economic transition in Japan during 1920-1940. In 1920, nearly 49% of Japan's men were in agriculture, forestry and fishing, and 42% in industry, trade and transportation. Economic transformation resulted in rapid urbanization. In 1920, 8% of the total population was in the six great cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, which increased to 34% in 1940. Regarding economic transition in Japan, there was a direct transition from a subsistence agrarian economy to an industrial urban economy. Also, the Japanese migrated to maintain the agricultural population.

During the eight years from 1940 to 1947, inclusive, in spite of the war, the population of Japan as now constituted increased by about 8,000,000. About 6,900,000 was due to an excess of births over deaths and 1,100,00 to net immigration. During the two years 1948 and 1949, the increase amounted to about 4,000,000, most of which came from an excess of births over deaths. By the end of 1949, the total number of persons had almost reached the 83,000,000 mark. When it is remembered that the land area of Japan is somewhat smaller than that of California, that only about one-sixth to one-fifth of this area is sufficiently level for farming, and that mineral deposits are relatively unimportant, it is not surprising that many of the Japanese people, and many non-Japanese as well, are concerned regarding the present ratio of the population to its means of support, and the future trend of this ratio. The official statistics which begin during the 1870's show a gradual increase in the crude birth rate from 25 per 1,000 during 1875-79 to 35 during 1920-24, but there is evidence indicating that fertility declined during this period and that the reported rise of the rate was due to the improvement of the basic statistics.