How are Part-Time Laboring International Students Incorporated into Host Labor Markets after Graduation? The Case of South and Southeast Asians in Japan

ABSTRACT A recent increase in the number of international students employed in low-skilled part-time work raises the question; are they incorporated into host labor markets after they graduate, and if so, how? This article addresses this issue by examining the case of South and Southeast Asian students in Japan. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, this article shows that labor market incorporation occurs for most SSA students and takes two different forms. First, an analysis utilizing the Japan Student Services Organization datasets on student pathways after graduation (2014–2017) revealed that the primary form is their (re)incorporation as low-skilled part-time workers. Mostly enrolled in vocational schools, these students go on to another school upon graduation, which in effect means an extension of their status as student part-timers. Second, while incorporation as full-time workers also occurs, interviews with these workers suggested that they are employed as a workforce that serves the migrant population and/or supplements shortages of native-born workers. Based on these results, this article argues that SSA students in Japan are incorporated into the host labor market as complements to the labor needs that Japan’s new demographic reality has created.