NEWS
2025.04.15
【Report】 The 78th AJI Frontier Seminar was held! Dr. Yusy Widarahesty presented the “Precarious Cycle of Migrant Workers’ Reproductive Justice: The Case of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Japan.”
The 78th AJI Frontier Seminar was held online on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. Dr. Yusy Widarahesty, a Senior Researcher at Asia-Japan Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University Japan, gave a presentation on the “Precarious Cycle of Migrant Workers’ Reproductive Justice: The Case of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Japan.”
Dr. Yusy began by explaining that Japan relies on migrant labor from Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines and has established a technical intern program (TITP) in 1993 that has undergone many changes due to demands and criticism from various parties. In addition, Japan created a “Specified Skilled Worker” or SSW vias status for foreign specialists to operate in specific industrial fields without training.
While migrant workers consider Japan to be a rights-respecting country, the US criticized the Japanese government for allowing recruiters and employers to exploit the trainees. From the perspective of human rights, Dr. Yusy investigated foreign worker’s reproductive rights in Japan based on ethnographic research. She employed a qualitative approach focusing on the experiences of Indonesian trainees from all aspects, including the governments, recruitment agencies, trainees, and supervising organizations in the pre-departure period, and during the program.
In Japan, migrant women are protected from pregnancy-related discrimination and dismissal, and can take maternity leave, with the same protections as Japanese citizens. They are also entitled to childcare leave and benefits. The Indonesian government also supports the rights of women who become pregnant during the programs. However, a large number of violations were found, especially for trainee and SSW workers. For example, trainees reported that pregnancy was strictly forbidden by sending organizations, and women would be expelled from the program and sent home if they became pregnant. Unfortunately, the governments do nothing about this unless the participants themselves complain, and Dr. Yusy’s team found that strict discipline and semi-military training prevent participants from complaining. As a result, the illegal conditions for pregnant women continue, and she recommended that a new system should be developed to protect women’s rights.
In the dynamic Q&A session Dr. Yusy was asked how she thought such a new system could be operated, whether it would be better for an Indonesian mother and baby to live in Japan or return home to their family, and whether the rights of the unborn babies should be considered. She answered all the questions carefully and the audience appreciated the importance of her research from the perspective of human rights.
Dr. Yusy Widarahesty delivering her presentation
Please visit the following link for previous AJI Frontier Seminars:
https://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/aji/young_researcher/seminar/archive/