The construction of the transnational labor market - an economic sociological investigation about the roles of personnel industry in Asia

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K02111
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 08010:Sociology-related
• Research Institution: Sophia University
• Principal Investigator: IMAI Jun 上智大学, 総合人間科学部, 教授 (30545653)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 人材業者 / 労働力 / アジア / 規範 / 将来の構想

Outline of Final Research Achievements

First, it was confirmed that Japanese-based personnel agencies expanded into Asian countries following the Great East Japan Earthquake, accompanying the overseas expansion of Japanese companies. These agencies conducted worker selection and skill development based on the adaptation to Japanese culture, including language. This process can be seen as the effort to define, therefore a part of the institutionalizing of "labor power" in the emerging labor market.

In the latter part, due to the stagnation of field surveys caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus of the research shifted. One focus was desk research, where the spread of labor mobility norms in Asia, focused on the situations of the ratification of ILO conventions by Asian countries. The other focus was the theoretical one. The formation of the concept of labor mobilities by personnel agencies (and states) confirmed in the first half of the research might be the beginning of the social construction of the labor market.

Free Research Field

社会学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

労働市場を作り上げるためには、労働力を商品として定義したり、交換のための規則を作ったり、共有したりする政治的・文化的過程が必要になる。EUのように国家間レベルで共通の労働市場を創ろうとするのではないアジアという地域においては、（日本をベースにした）人材業者等が労働市場を創ろうとする活動の一翼を担う重要な主体である。この研究では、彼らがまず「日本語人材」とでも呼ぶべき労働力商品を作ってきたことを明らかにした。また理論的には、商品や規則形成における「将来構想」の重要性を指摘している。