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Care, Social (Re)Production And Global Labour Migration: Japan’S ‘Special Gift’ Toward ‘Innately Gifted’ Filipino Workers, Hironori Onuki

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)1 concluded by the Japanese and the Philippine governments on 9 September 2006, was described in the Japanese media as a ‘new step toward opening Japan’s labour market’ (Asahi Shimbun 2006b). Similar to Japan’s previous free trade treaties with Singapore, Mexico and Malaysia, the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) mainly concerns tariff reduction to facilitate bilateral exchanges of goods and services (Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) 2006).2 Yet, its distinctive feature is its facilitation of the movement of ‘natural persons’ – more specifically, the JPEPA allows for the Philippines to send up to 400 nurses and …