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Japan needs to develop a strategy for planning and realizing economic integration suitable for Asia. Such a strategy should cover not only liberalization of trade in goods and services and investment but also management of international migration. When developing the strategy, it is important to recognize that since the turn of the century, the leadership of globalization is shifting from developed countries to emerging countries.

The author explores trends of low-skilled migrant labor in Japan before as well as after the global economic crisis, reviews the development of migration policies especially related to low-skilled migrants, and examines new empirical findings and draws some implications for migration policy reform in Japan. In the empirical analysis, the author stresses the effects of production fragmentation on low-skilled labor, the effects of the declining youth population on mismatches in the labor markets, and those of employment strategies by enterprises on the employment of nationals as well as foreigners at the local level. Finally, the author insists on the necessity for Japan to strengthen integration policy at the local level, in addition to immigration control policy at the national level, within the context of developing economic integration in the East Asian region.

(2002). Foreign Workers and Labour Migration Policy in Japan. Asia Pacific Business Review: Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 119-140.

Although the manufacturing sector's share of employment is still small in ASEAN-4 countries, the development of manufacturing, especially labor-intensive industries, will be indispensable for absorbing part of the increase in labor force. In these countries, Japanese direct investment (JDI) has been more highly concentrated in the manufacturing sector than JDI in other regions. The Japanese “New Asian Industrial Development (AID) Plan” is a comprehensive economic cooperation package, which supports the introduction of JDI and the promotion of exports in ASEAN-4 countries. JDI and AID may, in turn, help alleviate the domestic labor market situation and reduce the incentive for workers of ASEAN-4 countries to migrate to work overseas.

Since the late 1980s, member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have experienced an enormous increase in international migration. According to the OECD, these countries’ migration policies should focus on the selection and programming of migratory flows, integration of (legal) immigrants within the countries, and international cooperation to reduce sending pressures by developing countries (Garcon, 1995; OECD, 1994a).