SSJ Forum participants,

Thank you for the many emails requesting additional information, including paper abstracts. Apologies for not providing location details:

Roundtable "Change or Die": Immigrants, Foreigners and the Future of Human Capital Development and International Relations in the Japanese Political Economy Friday 16 March
1-3 pm
Civic Ballroom South (Second Floor)
Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, Toronto Canada Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies

"Change or Die": Immigrants, Foreigners and the Future of Human Capital Development and International Relations in the Japanese Political Economy AAS 2012 Roundtable

Sponsored by the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership
Panel Abstract

Outside the corporate conference room of Tadashi Yanai, Chairman and CEO of Fast Retailing Co., owner of UNIQLO Japan, hang a series of picture frames, each containing the company slogan for a given year. The 2011 slogan is "Change or Die" - in English. UNIQLO is one of Japan's fastest growing multinational companies, which now has more operations in China than in Japan. As part of the firm's global business strategy, two years ago Yanai announced that as of 2012 all communication would be conducted in English. Since this bold announcement, new Japanese applicants plummeted, while those throughout Asia continue to rise. In a meeting with a delegation of American scholars and policy experts in June 2011, Yanai said that he expected in 2012 to hire 75% non-Japanese. Japan's forward thinking corporations, including Yanai's Fast Retailing have reformed radically, and these reforms pre-date the systemic shock of the Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011.

Our roundtable convenes a group of senior scholars and policy experts to debate and discuss specific policy changes responding to the dire need for Japan to adapt to the challenges posed by an aging society, low birth rates, and rising economic competition from other Asian countries. Failure to develop a high skill, competitive workforce means increased hollowing out of innovative and productive capacity (through outsourcing and off-shoring). On the other hand, increased openness to immigrants from countries including Brazil, China, India and Korea can support economic growth, improve Japan's social networks within these countries and potentially better bilateral relations. Can Japan, through a more open immigration system, pursue its economic and political interests in the region, while improving its international relations?

Debate is maximized by a dynamic and interactive moderated discussion format. Participants shall each present a brief policy recommendation, based on extensive fieldwork-based research within a number of immigrant and foreign communities in Japan. Anthony D'Costa, Professor in Indian Studies and Research Director, Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School shall present arguments about how Japan could benefit from increases in high skill Indian technologists in several industrial sectors. Helene LeBail, Research Fellow, French Institute on Contemporary Japan shall contrast challenges and opportunities within immigrant communities in rural and urban Japan, including Chinese residents. Kathryn Ibata-Arens, Associate Professor, Political Science, DePaul University, shall show evidence of how attracting foreign entrepreneurs can have a multi-faceted impact on domestic human capital development. Alexandre Uehara, Vice President, Brazilian Association for Japanese Studies, shall discuss the opportunity for better integration of Japanese-Brazilians into Japanese society, despite significant cultural differences.

We shall be joined by two experts on Japanese immigration and immigration policy: Erin Chung, Johns Hopkins University, and Deborah Milly, Virginia Tech, who shall challenge participants to craft effective national policy recommendations.

Roundtable Participants and Paper Abstracts:

Anthony D'Costa, Professor in Indian Studies and Research Director at the Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School Asia Research Centre, Denmark

Positioning India in the Japanese IT Industry:
Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show how the Indian IT industry could position itself in the Japanese market.
But in order to accomplish this it is necessary to identify the key challenges and opportunities the Indian IT industry faces in the Japanese market. The opportunities for India, as well as other IT-strong developing countries, are to supply technical talent, whose availability in Japan is constrained by the secular demographic crisis and changing educational and occupational preferences. The challenges for India are the institutional barriers and in particular Japanese business practices that act as significant barriers to the entry of foreign skilled professionals. The paper brings out the source and pattern of foreign professionals and students in Japan as a proxy for talent. Though India's presence in Japan is currently limited the preconditions in the Japanese economy suggest a historic opportunity to forge a long-term mutually beneficial bilateral partnership between the two countries. For India this means reducing its dependence on the US market and availing new learning opportunities. For Japan it means access to technical professionals and managed interfacing with the global economy.

Helene Le Bail, Research Fellow, French Institute on Contemporary Japan, Tokyo

Policies Affecting Economic and Social Positioning of Chinese Workers in Urban and Rural Japan

Abstract

Since 2007, the Chinese residents in Japan are the main group of foreigners with a number of registered residents of more than 680 000. This number does not include the few thousands Chinese who naturalize every year since the 1990s and the about 20 000 undocumented residents. The Chinese stand for one third of the total foreign residents in Japan.

One could divide these new Chinese residents in 4 main groups according to their channel of entry into Japan:
students, skilled workers directly recruited in China, trainees, and the spouses of Japanese. What is particularly interesting for Japan is that a large part of the Chinese residents entered Japan as students (college or pre-college) and then decided to stay and work in Japan. It means that they are not only skilled workers but they also master the Japanese language and are even largely re-socialized in Japan. They are welcome to contribute to the Japanese economy, as well as to the civil society.

In opposition to this group, the less qualified are supposed to enter Japan as trainees and only contribute to the economy on a short-term basis. The trainee system is a two year system which can eventually be extended via the "designated activities visa". For these categories of short term residents, local authorities clearly avoid to incorporate them into local social life. This is particularly visible in the rural areas where many Chinese trainees work in the fishing sector or for small food processing companies.
After the Lehman shock and the 2011 Earthquake, it seems that rural areas are getting less attractive even for unskilled foreign workers. Furthermore, since the end of the 1980s, some rural authorities or social groups also tried to attract foreign spouses to resist depopulation. But here again, according to our fieldwork, it appears that the number of Chinese spouses has quickly decreased during the last few years.

The Chinese population is still increasing in Japan, but while rural areas are clearly less and less attractive, will the main urban areas be able, through better policies, to keep their mainly well-qualified Chinese residents?

Kathryn C. Ibata-Arens, Visiting Researcher, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) Japan; JSPS Fellow, Ritsumeikan University Graduate School of Management, Japan and Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, DePaul University

Foreign Entrepreneurs as Source of Human Capital
Development: a Policy Roadmap for Japan?

Abstract

The Japanese economy faces a number of demographic challenges to maintaining (and improving upon) its global competitiveness. These include an aging society, low birth rates and a decrease in college student interest in study abroad. Meanwhile, in the United States, immigrant and foreign entrepreneurs are many times more likely than native-born Americans to establish high growth, high technology ("gazelles) that contribute significantly to employment and economic development. Similarly, Singapore has pursued human capital development via a proactive immigration policy whereby the best-and-brightest young minds throughout Asia have been attracted to Singapore with generous doctoral fellowships. Recipients are required to accept Singaporean citizenship as well as work in the country for at least three years upon graduation. With this in mind, what sort of policy incentives can, and should, be created in Japan attracting talented foreigners; thereby enhancing its own human capital development?

Though small in number, the impact of foreign entrepreneurs in Japan and elsewhere is not limited to business start-ups. Foreign residents working as executives in major multinational corporations have contributed to an increase in angel and venture capital investment. Foreign entrepreneurs in Japan have also established new business incubators: matching Japanese new technology start-ups with their own global marketing and other expertise, as well as plugging entrepreneurs into the international (particularly West Coast U.S.) venture capital market. At the same time, foreign entrepreneurs as a whole have struggled to start businesses, and remain in business in Japan due to a number of legal and other barrier