The global age of migration is fast becoming a permanent feature of Japanese life, impacting the country's economic, social, and political landscape. The twelve essays collected here bring together the most up-to-date, original research on foreign workers and households from a variety of perspectives. Throughout, three key questions are addressed: Does the recent wave of migration constitute a new multicultural age that challenges Japan's identity us a homogenous society? How do foreign workers confront the many difficulties of living in Japan? How is Japanese society both resisting and accommodating the growing presence of foreign workers in its communities? Japan and Global Migration is a much-needed and timely contribution to the literature on Japan and cultural difference and required reading for anyone concerned with the future of Japanese society.

This is a persuasive, multilayered analysis of a vital but little-examined sector of the Japanese workforce--the female permanent blue-collar worker. Through personal accounts of factory life, the author examines why these women work, what satisfaction they find in remaining in the workforce, and how they meet the demands of work and household, caught in a contradiction between traditional socio-cultural ideology and modern economic reality.