Introduction: Population Aging, Health-Caregiving to the Elderly, and International Labor Migration to Japan

Abstract

Population aging and population decline have triggered a rapid demographic change in Japan. The strains on the economy in general, and the labor market in particular, are manifold, and prominently present in the health care sector. While the number of elderly who are potentially in need of health-caregiving is on the rise, the number of those willing to enter this profession is on the decline. In light of similar developments, many nations have entered the race for the best-educated health-caregiving professionals on a global labor market. Japan, however, only belatedly and only reluctantly has joined this international competition—and to this day seems ill prepared to be a powerful contestant in this arena. This chapter introduces the research perspective of the book, which is situated at the intersection of population aging, health-caregiving to the elderly and international labor migration to Japan. The book applies a multidisciplinary and multimethod approach in order to study the reasons for the formulation and implementation of an obviously faulty immigration scheme.