Healthcare Work and Cross-Cultural Understanding in Globalization: Social Issues and Responses in Indonesia and Japan

The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) has initiated healthcare worker migration from Indonesia to Japan since 2008. Issues and challenges concerning regulations and cross-cultural understandings of healthcare have emerged around such EPA healthcare work and workers in both societies. What issues have arisen and been reported in Indonesia and Japan? How do the media, policy makers, healthcare institutions and workers themselves, and other specialists react and respond to such new issues and challenges? In what way do Indonesian and Japanese social and workers’ understandings of healthcare work and worker migration differ? Our paper shows how national contexts affected by globalization shape and re-shape social understandings of healthcare migration and their policies in Indonesia and Japan over time. Analyses of the national media reporting, information from the governments, and interviews in Indonesia and Japan reveal a contrast of social responses to healthcare worker migration. In Indonesia where healthcare workers have been sent to Japan and other countries, this tends to be understood positively, overall, as economic benefits and Indonesian professionals’ contributions to the care worker shortage in Japan. In contrast, Japanese are more likely to respond negatively to these issues; yet, they intend to face cross-cultural challenges, although slowly, making revisions in the language and license examination policies. We pay particular attention to social issue construction and policy institutionalization processes around EPA healthcare workers in Indonesia and Japan. Our study contributes to our sociological understanding of healthcare worker migration, cross-cultural understandings of healthcare and related concepts, and how national contexts and globalization construct and re-construct social issues and policies toward a new social change.