Empirical Studies on Employment, Migration, and Family Issues of Foreigners in Japan

In the background of globalization and preceding with the fourth industrial revolution, firms' demand of foreign labor has increased greatly. Recently in Japan, attracting skilled foreigners has been part of the country's economic growth strategy, and the number of foreign workers has grown largely in the past few years. However, as a country with a very small number of foreigners for decades, many issues on foreigners in Japan, including their employment, migration, and family decisions, are not clear. Furthermore, although the number of foreigners has increased greatly, many problems remain which reduce the attractiveness of working and living in Japan; most of those problems are not limited to foreigners but to the entire Japanese society. This project is designed to tackle the following issues: first, it examines the employment of highly skilled foreign workers, focusing on the determinants of wage levels and factors that affect their job satisfaction. Second, several approaches are applied to tackle issues of migration decisions of skilled foreign labors in Japan, including macroeconomics, microeconomics, and sociology. Third, it provides analysis on the family issues of foreigners in Japan, such as children education and female labor participation. The purpose of this project is to provide empirical evidence and suggestions on how to achieve better advantages of foreign labor on the Japanese economy and society, as well as academic contributions on migration studies.

March 26, 2018 - February 29, 2020