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The author explores trends of low-skilled migrant labor in Japan before as well as after the global economic crisis, reviews the development of migration policies especially related to low-skilled migrants, and examines new empirical findings and draws some implications for migration policy reform in Japan. In the empirical analysis, the author stresses the effects of production fragmentation on low-skilled labor, the effects of the declining youth population on mismatches in the labor markets, and those of employment strategies by enterprises on the employment of nationals as well as foreigners at the local level. Finally, the author insists on the necessity for Japan to strengthen integration policy at the local level, in addition to immigration control policy at the national level, within the context of developing economic integration in the East Asian region.

Although the manufacturing sector's share of employment is still small in ASEAN-4 countries, the development of manufacturing, especially labor-intensive industries, will be indispensable for absorbing part of the increase in labor force. In these countries, Japanese direct investment (JDI) has been more highly concentrated in the manufacturing sector than JDI in other regions. The Japanese "New Asian Industrial Development (AID) Plan" is a comprehensive economic cooperation package, which supports the introduction of JDI and the promotion of exports in ASEAN-4 countries. JDI and AID may, in turn, help alleviate the domestic labor market situation and reduce the incentive for workers of ASEAN-4 countries to migrate to work overseas.