Foreign Workers and Law Enforcement in Japan [Hardcover]

This is a detailed study of the extent to which an increased influx of foreign workers is a threat to law and order in the context of the data-generating process of police statistics and the media coverage of crimes committed by foreigners. It shows that a general mood in which foreign workers are viewed as potential danger to Japanese society protects the criminalization of foreign illegal migrant workers.

The work begins by tracing the upsurge of illegal foreign workers in Japan. It builds a social profile of these illegals showing that because of fear of expulsion, lack of knowledge of the law and over-dependence on employer and workplace, their ability to avail themselves off the protection of the law is neglible, and they are always at risk of becoming victims to multiple exploitation.

1. Preliminary Remarks  2. Phenomenology of the illegal Labour Migration to Japan  3. Some Historical Preliminaries  4.  Prelude: The Japayuki Question  5. The Early Stages of a Process of Irregular Migration: The Increase of Male illegal Workers  6. The Debate Concerning a Formal Policy on Guest-Workers  7. Migrant Workers and Criminality  8. The Media and Criminality