This book explores the policymaking processes that led to Japan’s modern immigration regime, including the rejection of formal immigration policy and its wider implications.

Taking a historical approach, the book identifies the “1990 system”—namely, the reforms Japan’s policymakers enacted in and around 1990—as the crucial antecedent to understanding the overall continuity in the country’s immigration policy trajectory. Through an actor-focused analysis, this book dissects how and why Japan adopted its seemingly contradictory immigration policy—one that simultaneously accommodates and distances itself from an ever-growing pool of foreign laborers.

Contextualizing the current status quo of immigration in Japan and using rigid historical analysis to anticipate future developments, Japan’s Modern Immigration Regime will appeal to policymakers, as well as students and scholars of Japanese politics, labor migration studies, and comparative public policy studies.