Speaker

Mario Lopez (CSEAS Kyoto University)

Abstract

The summer of 2025 marked Japan’s own “summer of discontent,” as far-right parties stoked moral panic over migration and national identity while the state has clung to piecemeal, market-driven immigration reforms. At the same time, a deepening demographic crisis has pushed the care sector—reliant on migrant labour—to the forefront. This has made the contradictions of Japan’s migration visible: foreign workers, mainly from Southeast Asia, are increasingly indispensable, yet their role remains sidelined in public debates. What lessons can be drawn from the experiences of the care sector—one that is absorbing large numbers of skilled workers from Southeast Asia? Drawing on fieldwork in care homes and training colleges, this presentation explores the challenges that migrant workers and Japanese employers face in providing care to an aging Japanese population. Ultimately, foreign care workers are essential participants in maintaining contemporary Japanese society and their contributions demand a rethink of “essential work.”

Bio

Mario Lopez is Associate Professor at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS) Kyoto University. He has published widely on aging populations, demographic change and care migration in Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific. He co-edited the volume Environmental Resources Use and Challenges in Contemporary, Southeast Asia (Springer) and an edited collection on Human, Nature, & Society: The Multidisciplinary Study of Southeast Asia (Insist press). He currently sits on a government commission under the Japanese Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to inform the Immigration Services Agency (ISA) on reforms to its migration procedures.

Commentator

Yunchen Tian (Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University)