Dreaming of a Better Life: Journeys of Indonesian Migrant Workers to Japan

This book delves into a developing area of Japan's labor migration studies, providing comprehensive insights to unveil the complexity of Japan's Technical Intern Trainee Program (TITP), not only from the perspective of the receiving country but particularly from that of the sending country. In doing so, the book focuses on Indonesia’s participation in the TITP. With this, the book investigates the roles of various actors, including the Indonesian government, the supervising organization, the Indonesian community, alumni, and the trainees themselves. It examines, through three different (but interlocking) stages, (1) the pre-departure stage, (2) on-the-program stage, and (3) post-program stage. To achieve this, the book draws upon extensive fieldwork, including in-depth interviews where the main part of the book is the result of ethnographic fieldwork, netnography, interviews, and participant observation of the relevant parties to gauge what issues/problems they are aware of. Fieldwork was conducted on/off sites and also with current and former alumni of the technical trainee program in Indonesia as well as interviews with the stakeholders, such as policymakers from Japan and, particularly in Indonesia, and the supervising organization (kumiai/kanridantai).