"Indonesian migrant workers in Japan"

Speaker:

Ms. Haning Romdiati,
Research Center for Population, Indonesian Institute of Science

Date&Time:

14:00-15:30, October 31 (Fri), 2003

Venue:

E207, East Building of CSEAS

The high demand for industry workers in Japan, and on the other hand, the surplus labor economy currently being experienced Indonesia, has been the catalyst for the phenomenal increase in overseas migrant workers coming to Japan. Indonesian migrant workers generally fill the labor market niches where they do not compete with Japanese workers. Revised Japanese Immigration law of 1990, however, only allows the entry of foreigner's employment in high skill jobs, with the exception of foreign trainees who mostly engage in unskilled jobs. Consequently, there are many foreign illegal workers, including those coming from Indonesia. This fact, clearly contribute to many problems, both in terms of immigration and to human rights issues. The human rights issues, even faced not only by those working illegally but also those trainee with actually protected by Japanese labor law.

The seminar will briefly discuss the result study of current situation of Indonesian migrant workers in Japan (which based on finding from various cases studied) and problem faced by them.