2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Social inclusion and integration of diversity: Employers, newcomer migrant workers, and community response in Japan
| Project/Area Number |
19K02142
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
ロバーツ グレンダ.S 早稲田大学, 国際学術院(アジア太平洋研究科), 教授 (40308242)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | social inclusion / migrant workers / Japan / community / integration |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I was only able to leave Tokyo for one trip, together with my RA, Dr. Noriko Fujita. We went to Kyoto Prefecture to visit and interview four additional female farmers from Sept. 9-11,arranged by the SSWI dispatcher. This trip was short but productive. We carried out the field interviews on the 10th, and interviewed the dispatcher at his office on the 11th. In addition, we held a Zoom interviews with the dispatcher, on 8 December, and had additional news from him in the spring of 2021, when he introduced us to the staff who will be replacing him. He also gave us an introduction to an expert on agricultural trends. These recordings have all been transcribed.
We have presented findings from our research in two settings, at Chiba University and at a panel in the (virtual) Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies (USA). (Details below). In addition, we were invited by Dr. Michael Strausz of Texas Christian University o contribute a book chapter to a book entitled The Past and Future of Immigration in Japan. To date we have written an 8,000 word chapter and are currently revising it according to Dr. Strausz' comments. The entire volume will be sent for peer review later in 2021.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
This year we had planned to take at least three more field trips, but due to the pandemic restrictions, we could only take one. While that was unfortunate, we hope to take another 2-3 field trips before 2021 is finished. The numbers of Special Skilled Workers I who have been coming into Japan have of course been restricted due to the immigration freeze. Hence, the number of farmers able to hire these workers in the past year has been limited. We utilized Zoom to interview our key dispatcher informant when we could not make a field trip in December as we had planned.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We are currently working on analysis of existing transcribed tapes from our stakeholder interviews, and we will continue this analysis going forward in 2021. We will contact the new dispatcher for Kyoto Prefecture, and we will make at least one more trip there to interview additional farms employing SSWI as well as perhaps more farms in Aichi employing TITP workers. We will finish revisions on the chapter for the Strausz volume. We will apply to present findings at the Japan Association for Migration Policy in December 2021, as well as form a panel for the Association of Asian Studies annual conference in Honolulu, HI in March 2022. Finally, we will write our final report on our findings. Furthermore I will add Dr. Fujita as a CI to my grant as she now has become credentialed as a kakenhi researcher in her own right.
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| Causes of Carryover |
There is a large amount of unspent funds because Dr. Fujita and I were unable to attend the AAS in Boston in March 2020 because it was cancelled, and we were unable to attend it in the US in person in 2021 because it was only held virtually. Our expenses for the grant in 2020 were limited to the one fieldtrip in September, and the cost of transcribing tapes from Ark Shahonn company. This year we will spend the funds on 3 field trips to Kansai and one trip to the AAS in Honlulu in March 2022 for Dr. Fujita and I to present our findings from this kakenhi project. We will also spend funds on several more tape transcriptions.
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Research Products
(2 results)
