ABSTRACTS - oia - Portland State University

ASPAC Conference 2010
June 18 – 20, 2010 | Portland, OR
pronatalist policies. The policy effectiveness has been in question, however; for instance, the total fertility
rate in Singapore was 1.28 in 2008. In this case study, drawing on data collected from 165 in-depth interviews
with individuals and 39 focus group discussions in 2007 and 2008 in Singapore, I found that, among other
things, citizens actively questioned the effectiveness of policies by comparing them with policies found in
other national contexts. By highlighting the latter, they showed how the financial and work-life balance
policies in Singapore were not encouraging. France and the Quebec Province in Canada were noted to
proved generous cash benefits to larger families. China and Denmark were mentioned to suggest that three
month maternity leave was too short by comparison; Germany and the United Kingdom were used as
reference points that employers in Singapore were not as respectful of employees’ request for parental leave.
Interviewees also characterized the Australian government as pro-family in providing stay-home mothers
monthly allowance, and providing families with sustained education and health subsidies and facilitating
reduced work hours. While such responses remained as neutral comparisons in individual interviews, they
became more serious and intense during focus group discussions when interviewees talked about instances of
migration to other countries among family and friends, as well as their own intention to migrate, for reasons
related to lack of supportive pronatalist policies.
This paper, therefore, highlights the importance of the state policy on paper and the context in which
such policies are viewed by the citizens. Citizens are not passive recipients of top-down policies. Instead,
they are acting agents in weighing up policies by drawing upon their awareness and perceptions of exemplary
policies in other nation states.
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Ayumi Susai
Health care migration and vocational language training in Japan
In the context of demographic change --a rapidly aging and dwindling population -Japan is facing a
particularly sensitive moment which will influence the country's future. In 2008, the country, which still views
itself as a racially and culturally homogeneous country, decided to open its labor market (the health care
industry) to foreign workers under a bilateral Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). The country
succeeded in launching a new policy to import more foreign skilled workers into Japan; however, this
acceptance also gives rise to ethical questions of integrating foreign workers into society. Japan born residents
have high expectation of Japanese language ability from caregivers, and the language barrier and unfamiliar
workplace environment pose daily challenges to foreign candidates for nursing and certified care jobs. The
slow intake of foreign workers is believed to stem from concerns by hospitals and nursing care facilities about
the obligations that they would take on in accepting foreign nurses and certified care workers from Indonesia
and the Philippines-such as having to teach them Japanese, cover their living expenses and so forth. The six
months of Japanese language training for foreign candidates under the scheme of EP As is not sufficient for
many of the immigrants. This paper discusses Japan's demographic need for labor and the potential of
integrating foreign workers in terms of language, and suggests the need for the inclusion of a language
requirement in the immigration policy.
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Willa Jane Tanabe
Japanese Buddhist Temples of Hawai’i
From the earliest temples built in the late nineteenth century to the present day, the architectural styles of
Japanese Buddhist temples in Hawai’i reflect the Japanese immigrant's changing relationship to his ancestral
country, to his American environment and to his understanding of Buddhism. This paper presents an
overview of the five distinct styles of Japanese temple architecture and their possible significance. Temples
undergo a transition and sometimes an abrupt disjuncture from a "plantation house style," to a more
traditional Japanese design, followed by a simplification of traditional design, to a deliberate creation of an
international style combining elements of India and the West, and finally to the contemporary, often
mediocre, "house of worship" style. The interior of temples undergo less radical change. The altar area of
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