Critical Analysis of "Southeast Asian Labor Migration to Japan"
This paper is a critical analysis of Hannah Reeves' article titled "Southeast Asian Labor Migration to Japan," which was published in the Spring 1993 edition of the Journal of Asian Business. The paper begins with an examination of the relevance of Reeves' article given the current labor conditions in Japan, Southeast Asia, and the world in general. Such an approach is necessary because it follows Reeves' own analysis of labor migration to Japan as a movement within the context of the international labor market. The paper next examines the logic and completeness of Reeves' article, concluding generally with only a few relatively minor exceptions that Reeves' article is logically correct and her research and analysis is complete.
The primary exceptions lie with Reeves' complete dependence on the Philippines as an example of a labor-exporting country, her failure to adequately address the deceptively apparent discrepancy between the affluence required to enable immigration and the poverty indicated by the desire to immigrate, and her failure to attend to Japan's heavy investment in the infrastructure of Southeast Asian nations and the effect of Japan's moving labor-intensive industries to these nations. Finally, the paper offers bibliographic support for Reeves' claims and arguments, but also offers bibliographic support for the contention that Reeves fails to adequately address the conditions in other labor-exporting countries exclusive of the Philippines.
Critical Analysis of "Southeast Asian Labor Migration to Japan"
Because it has a foreign-born population of only 1 percent, ethnic sameness is one of Japan's most distinctive national characteristics (Meissner, Hormats, Walker & Ogata, 1993, p. 67). However, foreign migrant workers have begun to pose a complex dilemma for Japanese society (Yamanaka, 1993, p. 72). Japan needs cheap workers for its labo...