Transnational Migrant Advocacy from Japan: Tipping the Scales in the Policy Making Process

A large part of civil society in Japan, and migrant support groups in particular, has been described as apolitical and service oriented, being strong in generating social capital but weak in advocacy or lobbying politics. Developments preceding the 2009 reform of immigration policies in Japan call for qualifying this assessment. While the majority of migrant support groups is active on the local level, some have formed a national umbrella organization that has formulated policy proposals, acted as an external advisor in the policy making process and build networks with foreign governments, international organizations and NGOs. They engaged in agenda setting and influenced the way in which migration and NGOs themselves are framed in the Japanese mass media. This I will show in a case study on advocacy organizations involved in the recent reform of Japan’s Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) for foreigners. By focusing on a political process rather than a set of organizations, this paper not only observes transnational advocacy networks in the making, but also gives an accurate evaluation of their political impact and explains its factors. Migrant advocacy organizations informed an international public and were able to change the attitude of other political actors and interest groups and as a result tipped the scales in the policy making process.

外籍劳工权益跨国倡导活动在日本——在政策制定过程中的决定性作用

日本公民社会中的绝大部分，尤其是外籍劳工扶助方面的社会组织，一直以来被认为仅以提供服务为宗旨，不关心政治；它们长于制造社会资本，但在权利倡导和游说等政治活动方面甚为欠缺。但2009年日本移民政策改革之前发生的种种现象表明有必要对这种评价加以修正。尽管大多数外籍劳工扶助组织确实是活跃在地方层面上，但一些组织却在全国层面上建立了联盟组织，提出政策建议，在政策制定过程中充当外请顾问，并与外国政府、国际组织以及非政府组织建立联系网络。它们对政策制定的议事日程发挥影响，对于日本的大众传媒使用何种构建框架探讨外籍劳工以及非政府组织等问题起到了作用。对此我将对倡导组织进行案例研究加以说明，这些倡导组织均有参与日本最近对“外国技术实习生培训计划”进行的改革。本论文并非主要关注于一批组织，而是考察了一个政治过程，由此不仅观察到了跨国倡导网络的形成过程，而且对它们的政治影响作出了准确的评价，并对其中的各种因素进行了解析。外劳权益倡导组织使国际公众能够了解情况，改变了其他政治行动者和利益集团的态度，因此在政策制定过程中起到了决定性作用。

Translated from English by Li Guo