Introduction

Dimas first came to Japan in 2012 as a trainee under Japan’s Technical Internship Training Programme (TITP). After completion of his three years’ training and work in Japan, he returned to Indonesia in 2015 and started looking for a job. As a high school graduate, he struggled to find a decent job in his hometown, Surabaya, which is the second largest city in Indonesia. His work experience in Japan did not help him to find a job in Indonesia. He then decided to continue his education at university, majoring in engineering while working part-time as an online taxi driver. Since he found his income as a taxi driver insufficient to financially support himself and his family, in 2019, he returned to Japan to work. This time, he came to Japan via Osaka using a visa waiver for a short-term visit before ending up as an undocumented worker and an asylum seeker. Following his arrival in Japan, with the help of an Indonesian friend, Dimas managed to find a broker in Nagoya who introduced him to a company in need of workers. Not only that, but his friend also helped him to get a fake residence card and handled everything, from the apartment to the job. Dimas had a job interview with the broker, and eventually secured a job as an operator in a subcontractor company of a large corporation in Nagoya.

Dimas is only one example of an Indonesian who aspires to work in Japan but ends up seeking asylum status in the country. Many Indonesian young people find it hard to find a decent job in the country, especially if they do not have a university degree or vocational training. According to an Indonesian government survey in 2021 (Statistics Indonesia, 2021), about 8 million people in Indonesia were unemployed at that time. More than half of them were high school graduates or below and were between 20 and 29 years of age. It is not uncommon that some of these people would choose to find jobs abroad. In 2019, 277,489 Indonesian migrant workers went abroad to work in various sectors (BP2MI, 2022).

Emigration is not a new phenomenon in Indonesia. It began in the 1970s when the government tried to find overseas work opportunities for Indonesian people as part of a larger economic development policy (Palmer, 2016; Palmer & Missback, 2022). In its early phase, in the 1970s and 1980s, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia were the most preferred migration destinations for Indonesians, while Asia–Pacific countries, such as Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea, emerged later. It is undeniable that working abroad can significantly improve the lives of many Indonesians and their families. As migrant workers provide the largest source of foreign exchange contributions, they are even referred to by the Indonesian government as “foreign exchange heroes” for their contributions through remittances to the nation. For many nations, including Indonesia, remittances from migrant workers have been a major source of foreign currency. The influx of funds from migrant workers has helped to strengthen Indonesia’s current account, notably its secondary income account. Around US$3.2 billion in remittances were sent by the 3.2 million Indonesians who work abroad in 2021 (Faisal, 2022).

Nonetheless, it can potentially be risky to work abroad. Reports of mistreatment have led many people to believe that not enough is being done to protect Indonesian migrant workers abroad. The concerns involved—such as physical and sexual abuse, forced labour, and unpaid wages—have been highlighted by reported cases, particularly among female domestic employees (Bachtiar, 2011). As a result, the government responded to these problems by imposing a two-year prohibition on immigration to Malaysia starting in 2009 and by outlawing the mobility of female domestic migrant workers to Saudi Arabia starting in 2011 (Bachtiar, 2011). Twenty-one nations in the Middle East, North and East Africa, as well as Pakistan, had their moratoria extended in 2015 (The World Bank, 2017, p. 4). These various conditions eventually stopped Indonesian migrant workers, with an illegal or undocumented status, attempting to continue working abroad.

In addition to the numerous cases of violence that migrant workers encounter in their destination countries, the pre-departure administration procedure is viewed as a hardship by Indonesian migrant workers who seek to migrate legally. It can take up to three months to complete some of the arduous administrative steps required to become a legally recognised migrant worker, and there are 22 steps in total, which deter some potential migrants from choosing this route (The World Bank, 2017). By looking at the conditions of poverty, unequal education, and high inequality in Indonesia, various alternative strategies are used by Indonesian migrant workers to be able to migrate with the aim of improving their lives.

Japan is undoubtedly one of the preferred destinations for migrant workers from Indonesia. For young people in particular, Japan is one of the most attractive destination countries for Indonesians working abroad, thanks not only to the influence of Japanese pop culture but also due to Japan’s changing labour market and the emerging migration channels that affect how they see Japan (Budianto, 2023). Indonesians comprise a significant number of foreign residents in Japan. From 2019 to 2021, there were, respectively, 486, 753, and 359 Indonesians newly employed in Japan (MHLW, 2023). In June 2016, there were 50,478 Indonesian nationals in Japan, and the number increased to 67,751 in December 2020 and had hiked up to 83,169 by the middle of 2022 (MHLW, 2023). By June 2022, technical trainees ranked at first place (38,863) among the group of Indonesian residents in Japan, followed by students (6330), working professionals (4926), healthcare workers (1618), and other visa categories (MHLW, 2023).

The opening up of various opportunities to become migrant workers in Japan started when Japan expanded its companies to developing countries in the 1960s, which led to work becoming available through the IET (Individual Enterprise Type) Technical Intern Trainee scheme. This development was followed by the emergence of the TITP (Technical Internship Training Programme) in 1993, with the goal of transferring technology and knowledge to developing countries (JITCO, 2017). In the 1980s, Japan began to face labour shortages that impacted both large corporations and small and medium-sized businesses. Consequently, in the 1980s and early 1990s, the number of migrants, both documented and undocumented, kept increasing. During the period of 1983 to 1993, the number of foreign residents rose by 62%, totalling 1.3 million, including around 300,000 undocumented immigrants (Goodman et al., 2003).

Although the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, which came into force in June 1990, was a response to increasing migrant inflows, it was never intended to formally welcome unskilled immigrants to help with the country’s acute labour crisis. On the contrary, it effectively shuts the door to unskilled immigrants. Migrant workers, however, are only marginally present in policy approaches to Japan’s demographic change, if it all. On the one hand, Japan does not openly promote a policy of accepting large, systematic influxes of foreign workers. There exists a tension between the notion of Japan as a homogeneous nation-state and the stark need for trans-border labour importation to supply the demand for a short-term labour workforce, something which also potentially could diversify the Japanese body politic (Onuki, 2015). On the other hand, immigration rules cover the Japanese economy’s requirement for unskilled labour through side and back doors. First, Nikkeijin, or descendants of Japanese emigrants, primarily from Brazil but also from Peru and Bolivia, have been granted the right to long-term residence without limitations on employment. Second, the 1993 reforms to the trainee programme made it possible to import unskilled workers by using the immigration law (Yamanaka, 2004).

Foreign workers who aim to work in Japan face various problems, even before their departure. They have to pass the rigorous pre-departure stages, including administrative selection, competency tests, and medical and physical exams, before going through several months of pre-departure training (Widarahesty, 2022). Following their arrival in Japan, they continue experiencing problems, including human rights violations that cause Indonesian migrant workers to run away. For instance, there was one case of 7000 trainees running away and going missing in 2021 (Uemura, 2023).

As a result of these circumstances—the lengthy pre-departure process, the high departure fees, and the disadvantageous conditions in the destination country—the number of undocumented migrant workers in Japan has increased; some of these individuals were from Indonesia and they ended up requesting asylum status. Among them, as of December 2020, there were 250 Indonesians being considered for asylum status in Japan (MHLW, 2023).

The case of Indonesian asylum seekers is intriguing. On the one hand, although the country is seen to be economically growing and politically stable, there are not many job opportunities available and the unemployment rate is quite high. On the other hand, the lack of employment opportunities in the home country alone does not necessarily give grounds for asylum seeking or humanitarian protection in other countries, including Japan. All the influential factors, both in Indonesia and in Japan, should therefore be put into the spotlight.

Thus, this chapter aims to investigate and examine the phenomenon of asylum seeking from Indonesia to Japan, and it does so by discussing the narratives of Indonesian work seekers aiming to find employment in Japan, who end up seeking asylum status. This chapter explores their motivations and the migration routes they had taken. As this chapter focuses on the narratives of Indonesian work seekers and migrants who have sought Japan’s asylum seeker status, it takes into account how their aspirations on asylum status and mobility impact their security. We will answer these fundamental questions: Why do Indonesian people seek asylum status in Japan? How do economic motivations affect the decision-making process? How do they choose the routes? In order to answer these questions this chapter consists of several parts. We examine some previous studies on precariousness in the context of labour migration to Japan, followed by an investigation of the various channels that contribute to the mobility of Indonesian work seekers to Japan. The next section contains the narratives of two categories of Indonesian asylum seekers, followed by a discussion of what asylum seeking in Japan means in the case of Indonesians, which will lead to the conclusion.

Methodology

This chapter uses a conceptual tool—namely, the regime of the migration industry—to explain the origin and driving force behind the phenomena of Indonesian asylum seekers in Japan. This chapter makes use of this conceptual framework to explain the causes and motivations underlying the phenomenon of Indonesian asylum seekers in Japan. This chapter draws on qualitative data collected between 2018 and 2023, including ethnographic field notes and in-depth semi-structured interviews, both in person and online.

We interviewed five Indonesian nationals who once aspired and applied for asylum-seeking status, both in Japan and Indonesia. In addition, we also interviewed fellow Indonesians in Japan from diverse backgrounds, such as Indonesian workers and members of the Indonesian diaspora in Japan, along with staff from related NGOs, offering a non-elite perspective to reflect the complex conditions and circumstances in the field. The fieldwork was done in the Kansai and Kanto area of Japan, between April 2018 and March 2023. In Indonesia, we also took part in interviews and observations in the West Java and Jakarta regions, in 2019 and 2020, in order to observe the overall effect of the Indonesian labour programme to Japan. Additional interviews were conducted by Zoom and LINE in 2022. The “snowball strategy” was used to engage the audience. We followed ethical research guidelines and, to preserve confidentiality, this project uses pseudonyms instead of interviewees’ real names. Prior to interviews, we explained the aim of the research and received the consent of our interviewees to participate in this study. In the next section, in order to understand how this research is positioned, the perception of asylum seekers in academic literature will be considered.

The Precariousness of Labour Migration to Japan

Research on refugees and asylum seekers in Japan “has primarily concentrated on the analysis of legal concerns and the application procedure itself” (Koizumi, 2015, p. 241). If we look back in history, the end of the Cold War brought about significant changes and political unrest around the world, leading to new large-scale migrations, and increasing the number of persons seeking political asylum in all developed nations except Japan (Takeda, 1998, p. 431). While this phenomenon of increasing refugee numbers was going on, several studies examined the NGOs, national and international organisations, and grassroots movements in Japan that support and work with refugees and asylum seekers (Kuroda, 2003). Several studies have also been conducted on some issues related to detention centres, such as detention facilities, detention procedures, and detainee conditions. The studies on the relationship between refugees and detention centres have become increasingly important research topics. This is due to the many reports regarding Japan’s treatment of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants within its immigration detention centres, which, it was found, failed to protect the health of detainees (Kimiko & Wattles, 2019; Ichikawa et al., 2006; Miyauchi, 2015; Niitsu, 2012; Oh, 2017; Ohashi & Kodama, 2009).

Numerous studies have been done on refugees and asylum seekers in Japan, focussing particularly on the second generation of Vietnamese refugees in Osaka and Kobe. According to Takizawa (2018), even officially recognised refugees struggle issues relating to identity, economics, and education. Takizawa’s study emphasises the value of Japanese language proficiency for overcoming difficulties, particularly for assimilating into Japanese society. In his ethnographic investigation exploring what it is like to be an asylum seeker in Japan, Avci (2020) shows how people perceive, deal with, and cope with life while in this liminal situation. Avci’s study demonstrates how asylum seekers exhibit constrained but potent subjectivity inside the Japanese asylum procedure by drawing on their experiences in the prison, employment, love, and marriage spheres. Suzuki (2003) analyses Cambodian immigration to Japan in 1998 and 1999 as a case study to examine the problems that exist between the first and second generations of immigrants. She claims that the tragic experiences of war and being a refugee have inhibited generational communication.

As stated above, the available research has offered helpful insights concerning the state of Japan’s immigration policy, particularly for refugees and asylum seekers in Japan. Additionally, the existing research on refugees and asylum seekers in Japan  (e.g., Kalicki, 2019; Kondo, 2015) has primarily focussed on institutional issues, policy changes in immigration law, demographic changes in the country, the benefits and limitations of bringing in foreign workers, human rights abuses in detention facilities, and Japan’s low acceptance rate for refugees and asylum seekers.

However, the existing literature on refugee and asylum seekers has predominantly looked at the issues as policy, legal, and institutional issues that create various problems and demonstrate Japan’s resistance to taking in refugees and asylum seekers. Such research is indeed crucial to gauge Japan’s disposition to fulfil its commitments as a developed nation that accepts refugees and asylum seekers. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the fact that the asylum application process is extremely complicated, especially when considering the diverse backgrounds and motivations of the asylum seekers as they apply for asylum. These include economic motivations as a result of many factors stemming from conditions in their respective countries of origin. Thus, this study aims to further investigate and analyse the topic of asylum seekers who are driven by economic motivations, which has not been covered significantly in previous research involving asylum seekers from Indonesia in Japan.

The literature on Indonesian migrants in Japan does not seem to explore this problem either. There have been several studies on Indonesians in Japan, most of which have focussed on Indonesian migrant labourers. Indonesians who have visited Japan to participate in the country’s Industrial Training and Technical Internship Programme have been the subject of some preliminary research (Nawawi, 2010). It is important to categorise the types of Indonesian immigrants who are currently working in Japan and to look into the well-being and legal rights of such migrants (Romdiati, 2003). However, according to existing research, the studies on Indonesian asylum seekers in Japan are still limited. Therefore, it is essential to gain a deeper understanding of the movements and routes of Indonesian asylum seekers in Japan from the perspectives of the two nations, and to explore the reasons why people decide to use asylum seeking as a strategy. The next section looks at the narratives of Indonesian migrant workers regarding seeking asylum in Japan.

Various Migration Channels into Japan

The trend of asylum seeking in Japan among Indonesians, particularly among former technical trainees, began in the early 2000s. In the context of the mid-2000s until the end of the 2010s, the asylum seeing visa was popular among Indonesians. At that time, it was difficult for former trainees to re-enter Japan. If they wished to live in Japan longer, they often used the strategy of marrying a Japanese national. At that time, the high skills-based professional visa, for engineers or specialists in the humanities and international development for example, was not that popular, and the specified skilled workers (SSW) visa had not yet been created. For people from the early batch of technical trainees in the 2000s, the asylum-seeking status became one of the ways to return to Japan.

The asylum-seeking status is widely known among these people as “visa nanmin”. In that period, the number of Indonesian trainees under Japan’s TITP increased significantly (Yoshida, 2017). The TITP left trainees with no option but to leave Japan and return to their home countries after three years of training and working in Japan. However, some of them managed to secure a legal residence permit by marrying Japanese nationals and remained in the country. Some of them eventually became permanent residents, and a small number became brokers for fellow Indonesians who wanted to work in Japan. The Indonesian community in Japan established strong social networks, including not only current trainees but also the former trainees, where they shared information related to work and life in Japan.

It is therefore not surprising that former Indonesian trainees receive information from fellow Indonesians in Japan about working opportunities in the country, including information on asylum-seeking status. Information about working in Japan with an asylum-seeking status is commonly circulated among Indonesian work seekers, via friends’ recommendations, and through private groups on social media. They choose who to consult carefully and avoid sharing any plans regarding attaining asylum-seeking status with any formal organisations, because they do not want the authorities to know what they are doing.

It is also not uncommon for former technical trainees to become brokers and to help with fellow former trainees’ returns to Japan, to work either with asylum-seeking status or as an undocumented migrant. Indonesian asylum seekers usually receive information about working with an asylum seeing visa from friends or via word of mouth on social media. Such narratives as “He can bring you to Japan”, or “You can contact this person and he will take care of everything. You can make a deal with him directly”, are common in closed online communities among Indonesian former trainees. The brokers usually post the information about work opportunities in Japan through their private network, on social media such as Facebook and LINE messenger.

Furthermore, such advertisements as: “There is this so-called visa nanmin. Want to come to work in Japan? I can help you with visa nanmin”, were not uncommon among the Indonesian former migrant workers’ group in 2017 and circulated through social media. Indonesian asylum seekers usually received information about working with an asylum seeing visa from friends, brokers, or via word of mouth on social media. Brokers were usually someone they know, sometimes referred to as “a friend”. We found that the brokers shared certain characteristics, for example, being an Indonesian married to a Japanese national and currently living in Japan. The brokers make job offers to the candidates, referred to as “shoukai” (introductions), an important point in the recruitment process.

Our study found that brokers involved in the recruitment process came from various backgrounds, including Japanese, Indonesians, and people of other nationalities. However, one pattern emerged from the brokering practice, namely that the brokers do not work alone and that they create a transnational network between Indonesia and Japan. We found that Indonesian brokers have typically lived in Japan for up to twenty years. They had developed a sufficient network among Japanese people and had connections with Indonesian brokers in Japan, and people of other nationalities. In addition, they also had a tight connection with their fellow countrymen in Indonesia, who would serve as local brokers and as the first contact point for aspiring Indonesian job seekers who wanted to work in Japan.

One interviewee, Wahyu, told us the story of Adi, an Indonesian broker in Japan, whose business was to help former trainees who wished to re-enter Japan, even as illegal workers. Adi had long run his business as a broker. He came to Japan as a technical trainee in early 2000s. As one of the early generations of Japan’s technical trainees, he was quite well known among the technical trainee communities in Japan. Upon completion of his training period in Japan, he married a Japanese national and eventually obtained a permanent residency that allowed him to live and work in Japan freely. The residence permit and the network he created during his work life in Japan granted him access to wider Indonesian technical trainee communities and allowed him to practice his brokering business until the end of 2017, when the Japanese authorities found out his about illegal business. He was interrogated and, as consequence, he was told to stop his business and to report to the local immigration office once a year, despite his permanent residence status. At that time, in 2017, the number of asylum seeker applications had increased significantly. Only 1% of the applications came from Middle Eastern and African crisis zones, according to a breakdown of the applications by nationality, with more than 80% coming from the Asia–Pacific region. 4895 applications were submitted by Filipino nationals, which was three and a half times more than in 2016 with 3116 applications. Vietnam came next, closely followed by Sri Lanka (2226) and Indonesia (2038) (Siripala, 2018). The sudden increase in asylum seeker applications in 2017 has been confirmed by our interviewees.

Brokers in our sample did not work alone. They worked in teams, solely based on trust. When a broker successfully facilitates and grants someone’s wish to work in Japan, the broker will gain trust. This makes it much easier for brokers to find more prospective candidates to work in Japan. In some cases, brokers manage to develop their network by gaining the trust of former candidates, who then help the broker by finding more potential candidates and introducing them to the broker.

Brokers play a significant role in equipping job seekers with all documents necessary for living in Japan. One of the most basic documents for foreign nationals is the residence card. For undocumented migrant workers, brokers offer a service to create a fake residence card. All the procedures to make a residence card, such as sending the ID photo, as well as the name and address verification, are all carried out online. The payment is made in cash on delivery. Foreign communities in Japan who provide services to create fake residence cards are not limited to Indonesian brokers but also, according to our interviewees, brokers of other nationalities. Job seekers have to pay a certain amount of money for one residence card. One of our interviewees said that he had to pay about one man yen (about US$100) for one ID.

Job seekers who wish to go to Japan for work as undocumented migrants have to pay a recruitment fee. The fee varies, starting from 30 million Indonesian rupiah (about US$2,500) which includes the airfare, referral or introduction (shoukai) fee, the accommodation fee, or what they referred to as the “address fee”, etc. All the costs are borne by job seekers before their departure to Japan. After their arrival, the brokers will ask for an additional monthly fee, deducted from their monthly wages. This mechanism is commonly found in the recruitment process for Indonesian work seekers who aspire to go to Japan (e.g., Azis et al., 2020).

An asylum seeing visa is appealing for Indonesian work seekers because they can apply for it, for free, at the local immigration office, while they have to pay several amounts of money to the sending organisations in Indonesia if they wish to come to Japan on a trainee visa. In most cases, one person has to pay a price which starts from 30 million rupiah (about US$2,500) so that they can join a local sending organisation and have their Japanese language training in order to become eligible to work in Japan as trainee under the TITP. Asylum-seeking status also allows the applicants to work even when their application is still under review. In addition to such reasons, there are other factors that make asylum-seeking status one of the options for work seekers, and why Indonesians keep coming to Japan to seek work, even as undocumented workers or as asylum-seeking workers.

The biggest factor is the demand from companies. Japanese companies prefer to recruit former technical trainees as they have adequate skills, such as language skills and cultural skills, to work in Japan. The companies do not want to take the risk of recruiting new people with no skills. Some of them prefer to recruit experienced workers even if they are staying illegally in Japan. It means that the employers desperately need foreign workers, regardless of their legal status. One of our informants said that he was asked by his employer, “Do you have another friend who can work here? I need people”. The employer asked if he had friends who could work in Japan regardless of their legal status.

Both brokers and shacho (employers) ensure that the migrant workers stay at their work. Dimas shares his experience, “My broker said, ‘Just don’t resign, you continue working and later the shacho will handle everything—your job, and all administrative procedures in the company. Just focus on your work. If you work well, I will increase your wage’”. The company should not hire foreigners without a legal visa; however, our data indicates that such companies, employing foreigners without an appropriate visa, exist because of the high demand for labour. In their search for employees, many Japanese companies are desperate enough to accept illegal foreign workers.

Moreover, in Japan, there can be problems with informal renting and fake address registration, since one address can be used for several people. Our data shows that the brokers take advantages of these conditions. As our data indicates, one of our informants lives in a shelter provided by the broker. It turned out that the broker had two houses. One house was for him and the other was for applicants with asylum-seeking status, and undocumented people. Surya recalled, “I live in the same apato (apartment, flat). The apato is like a shelter for undocumented Indonesians, either they came on a visa waiver or were runaways from their employer. One apato can shelter like ten people. It’s an apato with a kitchen, one living room, and one bedroom. It’s in the countryside”. All these factors create a perfect environment for undocumented migrants to work and live in Japan. They provide a support system and a niche for these people to make living in the country.

However, since the Japanese government introduced the specified skill workers (SSW) visa, the number of undocumented foreign workers decreased, as well as the demand for the asylum-seeking visa. The SSW visa has been implemented since April 2019 to facilitate the entrance of semi-skilled foreign workers to Japan and to help ease the domestic labour force. There is no limit to the age of applicants, and this allows former trainees to come back to Japan again as workers, not trainees. Even though the SSW visa could be one of the solutions for former trainees to re-enter Japan and work, there are many issues regarding the SSW visa. One of the biggest issues of the SSW is the limited number of places that organise language and competency tests, as well as the limited knowledge on the jobs under the SSW visa programme.

Narratives of Indonesian Asylum Seekers

We found at least two categories of Indonesians who applied for asylum seeing visas in Japan. They share different characteristics depending on whether they have working experience in Japan or not. The first category is those who have prior working experience in Japan, mostly as technical internship trainees. The work experience provides these people with an understanding of what it is like to work in Japan. However, due to the TITP rules, they have to return to Indonesia once their internship contract ends. In most cases, upon returning to Indonesia, these people cannot secure a decent job and see working back in Japan as appealing. Some of them choose to look for opportunities so that they can return to work in Japan, even when it requires them to go down illegal paths. They are aware that the procedures are illegal.

The second category is those who have no prior working experience in Japan. People in this category are job seekers who aspire to work in Japan. They know a little about working in Japan and tend to have a low awareness of the legal pathways to work in Japan. This could be due to recklessness or simply due to a lack of Japanese language skills. In this section, we selected two narratives of Indonesian asylum seekers in Japan, one to represent each of the above categories. In their narratives, we use the context of the past few years, from 2017 to 2023.

Becoming Undocumented: The Story of Dimas

Dimas was a technical internship trainee, working in Japan in 2012–2015. As stated in the opening of this chapter, Dimas was one of those Indonesian returnees who could not find a decent job in Indonesia after his first return from Japan. He decided to work in Japan for economic motives. Dimas shared with us his aspirations and motivations for working in Japan.

For me, I wish to work in Japan as long as possible. First, I like the country. I love Japan. In Indonesia, I can do nothing. There is not much to do in Indonesia. It is quite difficult for me, even as a university graduate, to find a job in Indonesia with decent pay, especially when you do not have great skills. People my age, I will soon turn 34 ... I think it would be difficult to find work in Indonesian private companies. That’s why I would prefer to work in Japan, even if it is only a less skilled job. But I think the salary is worth the effort.

Upon returning to Indonesia, Dimas decided to continue his education at university. However, he later found that his university credentials did not help him to find a decent job in his home country. He was struggling in Indonesia until, in 2018, he first heard about working opportunities in Japan from his former technical intern community, using a visa waiver and an asylum-seeking visa. He became interested after he heard about this opportunity.

In 2017–2018, the asylum-seeking visa was very popular among Indonesian former trainees. “It was 2018 when I first heard about the asylum-seeking visa. Many of my friends were applying for that visa, so I was thinking, ‘I think I should apply for that visa too!’ But unfortunately, the Japanese immigration in Nagoya stopped accepting applications for such visas, so I followed my friends, becoming an illegal resident”.

Dimas came to Japan for the second time in 2018, using a visa waiver intended for foreign nationals of a few selected countries to visit Japan on a short-term basis—Indonesia being among the countries that granted visa waivers limited to short stay purposes. Workers and brokers take advantage of this visa waiver and make use of it to enter Japan. In Dimas’s case, brokers shared information with him about coming to Japan using a visa waiver, but they did not share any information about work in Japan. Work-related information was only given after his arrival in Japan. Dimas shared his experience entering Japan.

We entered Japan individually, without being accompanied by anyone we knew. Once we successfully entered Japan, we got in touch with the broker in Japan through Facebook. He said, ‘Where are you now? You should contact this person, chat, and go meet him. He will provide you with shelter’. After I arrived in Japan, the broker told me everything.

Initially, Dimas planned to go to Japan as a visitor first, and then to apply for an asylum-seeking visa later when he was already in Japan. However, Dimas did not know anything about the kind of work that would be available in Japan. All his decisions were based solely on mutual trust with the brokers. Dimas described this as follows, “We enter Japan like blind people. We did not know where to go. On the initial days, we stayed at hotels, while communicating with other Indonesian job seekers and the broker”. Upon his arrival in Japan, Dimas managed to keep in touch with the broker and to find a place to stay. Initially, Dimas wanted to apply for an asylum-seeking visa but, in the end, he could not do that because the local immigration office no longer accepted such applications.

After failing to apply for such a visa, he became undocumented. He expressed his thoughts on being an undocumented worker and, particularly, on the potential benefits of working illegally. He compared working illegally to his situation when he was a technical internship trainee. “Speaking of the economic benefits, I think being an illegal worker is not that bad. The wage was higher than technical trainee. But when we talk about the quality of living, I think being legal is way better”.

One of the most important factors why some people choose to be undocumented workers is the higher wages. When compared to the technical trainee, the wage of undocumented workers can be higher because the employers do not have to pay tax and so the workers receive the full amount of wage. This is why some of technical trainees choose to run away and end up becoming undocumented, while some of them apply for an asylum-seeking visa. “Even today, there are still many of my friends remaining in Japan illegally as undocumented migrants”. Those undocumented people who remain in Japan are genuinely in a very vulnerable and uncertain situation.

From Work Seekers to Asylum Seekers: The Story of Surya

Surya came to Japan in 2018. Back in his village, he was unemployed and was struggling to find decent work. Back in 2016–2017, he was enrolled in a skill training centre (LPK) preparing himself to learn the Japanese language with the aim of working in Japan as a technical trainee upon completion of the language training programme. Unfortunately, after more than one year of training, he was stuck at the training centre. The centre did not give him an exact date when he could depart for Japan. He eventually gave up and quit the training centre. In 2022, one of his friends from the training centre told him that there was an opportunity to go to Japan with a help of a broker. Surya recalled,

Initially, I wanted to join the internship programme as a technical internship trainee. But the sending organisation in Indonesia kind of gave me a false hope. I waited like years and they did not process my departure even though I had paid the processing fee, about 15 million rupiah. Then, at some point, I heard from my friend, who I then found out was already in Japan. I contacted him, and asked how he could already be in Japan? I asked, and he showed me his way. He said: ‘You can apply for visa waiver and contact this person’.

His friend came from the same province and had been at the same training centre preparing for the technical trainee programme. Despite having paid the training centre, he and his friend had both given up on the language training and on the idea of going to Japan. However, as mentioned, Surya then found out that his friend was already employed in Japan. After that, Surya got in touch with him to ask for advice on how to get to Japan. He advised Surya to speak with a broker and to enter Japan with a visa waiver.

The broker promised him some job opportunities with a high salary. Some brokers would say that the job seekers could even choose the job they prefer. Surya recalled his experience, “He promised me a job in the manufacturing industry, but he lied. He said that I would be paid up to 2000 yen per hour. But that was all lies. The reality was far from that. After I came to Japan, he did not even give me any job. I was jobless for about four months. I had nothing to do”.

Surya had to pay 160,000 yen after arriving in Japan. The broker promised Surya, when he was still in Indonesia, that he could go to Japan and work. The broker also promised that the work visa could be extended over and over. The broker claimed to have contacts with a dispatch company (hakkengaisha) and promised Surya a job. He even said that Surya could change job if he wanted. But the reality was that during the initial four months after his arrival in Japan, he did not have any job. The broker broke his promise.

I felt disappointed. Disappointed because of a scam. Actually, I did not know anything about the work visa they promised me. I found out later after I came to Japan. If only I had known that they scammed me by promising me some jobs illegally, I would rather have waited and gone through the legal procedures to get my technical trainee visa. I would have preferred to use trainee visa because, I think, the asylum-seeking visa is more for when you need protection. It sounds like something big is happening in Indonesia when it isn’t. If there were any other choices, I would not choose the asylum-seeking visa.

Surya not only felt disappointed but also found himself the victim of a job scam. He expressed his disappointment towards the broker who scammed him. He also felt embarrassed when people found out he was on an asylum-seeking visa. He told us, “People only know me as kenshuusei (trainee). I keep silent and tell no one. Because I feel ashamed if they find out that I am using an asylum-seeking visa. I don’t want to work on an asylum-seeking visa. If only I had known this from the beginning. I feel like I am trapped, and I have no choice”. Surya ended up living in Japan on a special activities visa (tokutei katsudou visa) and had to renew his visa four times, every six months during 2018–2020. At the time of writing, he lives in Japan undocumented and told us about his willingness to return to Indonesia soon.

From the two stories above, we can clearly see how this precarious circle works. A network that connects former trainee workers and prospective job seekers to Japan gets them caught up in the offers of brokers who fill the void and provide opportunities. They sell dreams, offering hopes of finding a better life in Japan.

Asylum Seeking in Japan: Opportunities and Survival Strategies

We have discussed the various channels that shape the phenomenon of asylum seeking by Indonesian nationals in Japan and have elaborated the narratives of Indonesian asylum seekers. Two major patterns have emerged from their narratives. The first pattern involves people who consciously aspire towards and apply for asylum-seeking status on their own. These are usually former technical trainees. For these people, asylum seeking becomes one of the alternative doors to work and live in Japan.

Our interviewees understand that asylum-seeking status is intended for people from countries with conflicts or problems. They are aware that they do not have cause to apply for asylum-seeking status, considering their situation back in Indonesia. They also are aware that many people misuse the visa for other purposes. Despite being aware of the asylum-seeking status, these people still apply for the visa, something which has drawn the attention of both the Indonesian and Japanese governments. From the Indonesian government’s point of view, this situation is seen to be quite problematic. On the one hand, the government considers that Indonesian people who apply for asylum status in Japan have already abandoned their citizenship (Agustina, 2017) and, therefore, are already not under the Indonesian government’s responsibilities anymore. On the other hand, the Indonesian government cannot neglect their own people when something happens to them in Japan.

While people were aware of their decision to go with the asylum status, they were in fact also victims of the migration industry. The fact that they were working while undocumented meant that they were technically breaking the law, but they should not be viewed as criminals. We found that structural factors in Japan, such as the demand for workers, and Japan’s housing regulations, play a role in creating such a niche for undocumented migrants in Japan who want to make living. Legal pathways to work in Japan, such as technical trainees, specified skilled workers, and professional workers, mostly require foreign nationals to have a particular credentials and sufficient technical skills, as well as Japanese language skills. A lack of these requirements may hinder their mobility to Japan. Therefore, some of these people, with insufficient skills, choose to work in Japan illegally with all the risks, such as being deported and put on a blacklist, and being barred from entering the country for a specified time. Some of them end up applying for asylum-seeking status to avoid these risks, even when they have to abandon their citizenship.

The second narrative pattern involves work seekers who have no choice but to apply for an asylum-seeking visa so that they can survive in Japan. They initially received information about working in Japan from agents and brokers in Indonesia, and for them, asylum-seeking status became primarily a survival strategy. Our data shows that most Indonesian job seekers in this category whom we interviewed are victims of the migration industry and are in a vulnerable position. Their decision to seek asylum status was a part of their survival strategy. Furthermore, since they also had to make a living in Japan, asylum-seeking status granted them a temporary legal residence status that allowed them to find a job. Our interviewees shared their experience of having to stay in a small apartment with ten other undocumented people from Indonesia. It is not uncommon for undocumented migrants in Japan to create a community to provide a certain level of security despite their illegal status. They tend to choose to live in rural areas which are harder to reach by Japanese authorities. The broker helps them to rent an apartment, buy a car, and live their life just like Japanese people do, so they are not suspicious. Our data shows that the Indonesian work seekers we interviewed initially entered Japan legally but ended up undocumented. They made the decision to migrate to Japan on their own, wanting to take advantages of job opportunities provided by Japan's changing labour market. However, many actors in the migration industry, including the brokers, contribute towards shaping such opportunities.

Conclusion

Our study reveals that both Japan and Indonesia play an important role in opening the loophole for the surge in demand for asylum-seeking status, which is driven by economic migration. Japan’s immigration laws were never designed to formally accept unskilled immigrants to aid with the nation’s severe labour shortage. The decision to accept and open up Japan to the immigration of unskilled migrant labourers is still being debated. There is a conflict between the idea of Japan as a homogenous nation-state and the urgent need for trans-border labour importation. This, ultimately, requires the acceptance of these workers as temporary migrants, which Japan continues to resist today. As a result, Japan does not openly promote a policy of accepting a large, systematic influx of foreign workers. However, these circumstances contrast with the needs of Japanese industry, particularly for small and medium-sized business owners who rely heavily on the availability of low-paid and productive labour from abroad. Furthermore, the existence of brokers also contributes to the entrance of foreign workers.

In the meantime, structural poverty and inequality in Indonesia are seen as driving forces for the surge in Indonesian labour migrants. In Indonesia, employment opportunities, particularly in rural areas, are still very scarce, social inequality between the rich and the poor is very pronounced, and minimum wage conditions are very harsh. These circumstances can pose a threat due to rising crime, unemployment, inequality, and human trafficking. Also, the pre-departure procedural process for migrant workers, which is known to be arduous and complex, has led to some Indonesian migrant workers seeking work abroad by alternate routes. Hence, this situation creates a space for which the migration industry can exploit. The migration industry's presence involves the recruitment of people, institutions, and other intermediaries, to facilitate the flow of labour to destinations abroad. This migration industry is interrelated, including both the sending countries and the receiving countries, and involves many actors both in Indonesia and Japan. The situations both in Japan and Indonesia contribute towards creating a gap which more and more migrant workers fill by coming to Japan in search of work, regardless of the type of visa, be it documented, overstayed, undocumented, or asylum seeker.

From the point of view of asylum seekers, their involvement in the industrial migratory cycle is a very complex issue, which cannot simply be reduced to a matter of hurt national pride. There are many factors behind this situation, such as individual factors, community factors, and also structural factors consisting of political systems, migration policies, and governance. From the stories above, we can see that the experiences of Dimas and Surya may represent stories of many others. They are clearly victims whose vulnerabilities are exploited by many actors for money, even more so in an increasingly unequal world amid policies that are too state-centred or elitist.

As we have discussed throughout this chapter, this study argues that asylum seeking becomes a survival strategy for job seekers who aspire to find work in Japan. We found that several factors, such as the work seekers’ personal motivations and external conditions both in Japan and Indonesia—including the existence of brokers and structural factors such as inequalities in the socio and political economy—all contribute towards shaping the conditions that pave the way to the emergence of asylum seeking as a survival strategy.