Japan's working poor: dekassegui immigrant labor and their transversalities

Author(s)

Mariana Shinohara Roncato

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2020-03-27

Examining board members

Ricardo Antunes; Bárbara Castro; Lívia de Cássia Godoi Moraes; Fábio Kazuo Ocada; Liliana Rolfsen Petrilli Segnini

• Advisor: Ricardo Antunes

Abstract

Known as dekassegui, the Brazilian immigrant community in Japan reached more than 200.000 people in 30 years of migrant flux. The shortage of labor force in key sectors of the Japanese economy ¿ as in industry, construction and care ¿ increases every year, highlighting the political debate of immigrant entry. Japanese population decreases continually due to an ageing process and a low fertility rate, which precludes its replacement and the reproduction of capital. In this sense, the issue of labor shortage includes not only economic questions, but comprises also ethnic and gender conflicts in Japan. Considering these issues, this dissertation aims to understand dekassegui immigrant labor assuming as its axis an integrative perspective of class, gender and race/ethnicity. Using the analytical perspective of Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) we questioned the mode, the reasons, the social function and the origins of class, gender and race/ethnicity exploitation and oppression, which express themselves in a paradigmatic manner in dekasseguis¿ lives. In general, the labor done by this population is limited to the automotive and eletronics industries, with temporary labor contracts, no stability, intermittent jobs and scarce opportunities of promotion. Nevertheless, when compared to the situation dekasseguis experienced before the migrant process, living in Japan also means an improvement in their material conditions, a relative comfort and safety. On the one hand, therefore, there is an intensive exploitation of their labor, in painful conditions, that goes together with gender and race oppression; on the other, the economic situation Japan offers them results in a longer stay. To comprehend the present contradictions of this migration phenomenon, we researched in loco the dekasseguis living in the city of Toyota, aiming to analyze how exploitation and oppression are manifested in Japan. Considering the immigrant as a paradigm of the flexible worker, we questioned what is the particularity of the immigrant that differs her from the Japanese worker in precarious conditions. Furthermore, we aim to answer how the intersection of class, gender and race/ethnicity manifests itself in a society with little tradition in receiving immigrants. Our approach to the triad race, class and gender is organized by the integrative articulation between the production of the labor force commodity and the reproduction of capital, which enabled us to comprehend the genesis of women oppression in capitalism. Our intention is to present the perspective that gender and race, as identities, are social constructions necessary to capital and, by this same reason, were formed as a social structure pari passu with the genesis and development of capitalism. In the Japanese case, this construction was realized with the idea of cultural and ethnic homogeneity, which is still present nowadays. Finally, we also mapped the association of Japanese and immigrants in political struggles as a paradigmatic form in which resistance is also realized in the articulation between class, gender and race/ethnicity (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/14531-0 - Japan's working poor: dekassegui immigrant labor and their transversalities
• Grantee: Mariana Shinohara Roncato
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate