Skripsi

SEKURITISASI KETENAGAKERJAAN JEPANG AKIBAT DEPOPULASI DI ERA SHINZO ABE

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This study analyzes the process of labor securitization in Japan driven by depopulation under the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, using the Copenhagen School’s Securitization Theory as the analytical framework. Japan is facing a severe demographic crisis, marked by the lowest birth rate in its history (720,988–758,631 births in 2024), an elderly population reaching 30 percent of the total, and a drastic contraction of the working-age labor force. The total fertility rate is only 1.15 children per woman, far below the replacement level of 2.1, resulting in a natural population decline of nearly 900,000 people per year. The Abe administration constructed this demographic crisis as an existential threat to Japan’s economy, social security system, and national power. Through a series of strategic speech acts, Abe framed population decline as a “national crisis” that requires extraordinary measures. This securitization strategy produces a unique inverted logic: it is not the presence of immigrants, but rather the absence of labor that is constructed as a national security threat. As a result of this process of securitization, the government launched the Specified Skilled Worker (Tokutei Ginou) program on 1 April 2019 through amendments to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. This policy opened an official pathway for medium- and low-skilled foreign workers to be employed in 14 strategic industrial sectors, including elderly care, construction, agriculture, and food manufacturing, with a target of admitting 345,150 workers within the first five years. This represents a significant transformation from Japan’s previously highly restrictive immigration policy. Using a qualitative case study approach combined with critical discourse analysis of primary documents such as official government speeches and immigration regulations and secondary sources including academic publications and international research reports, this study finds that the SSW program is a concrete manifestation of successful securitization, in which immigrants are transformed from a perceived source of threat into a solution to national security challenges. The study contributes to securitization theory by presenting a non-Western case that enriches understanding of how advanced states redefine national interests when confronted with existential crises.

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Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

T1922282025

Publisher

Indralaya : Prodi Ilmu Hubungan Internasional, Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Politik Universitas Sriwijaya., 2025

Collation

xiv, 81 hlm.; ilus.; 29 cm

Language

Indonesia

ISBN/ISSN

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Classification

331.110 952 07

Content Type

Text

Media Type

unmediated

Carrier Type

-

Edition

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Subject(s)

Jepang
Prodi Ilmu Hubungan Internasional

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

KA

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