The invisibility of Filipino women in rural Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic

Racial rumors and sexual stereotypes

Before the declaration of the state of emergency on 30 March 2020, the governor of Tokyo asked residents to “refrain” from visiting “nightlife towns” or yoru no machi, because the new cases in Tokyo were suspected to be spread by those associated with the nightlife business (Takaya et al., 2020). Then, the rumors that the “nightclubs and pubs” or o-mises were sites of COVID-19 infection clusters, especially in nightlife towns. The environment of nightclubs and pubs where workers serve customers in very close proximity while chatting and providing playful romantic behavior was easily associated with San-Mitsu (3密), or “places with three Cs” (close contact settings, closed spaces with poor ventilation and crowded places), which people were advised to avoid to prevent infection.

Rumors based on racial and sexual discrimination have circulated since the early period of the pandemic. According to a news article, one Filipino woman-owned nightclub received a flood of criticism after it was found that a customer was infected and that a COVID-19 infection cluster was subsequently identified at the nightclub, even though the nightclub had followed the infection prevention guidelines issued by the local government (Mainichi Shimbun, 2020a). In the same article, the owner reported that she received racist remarks over the phone, such as, “Go back to the Philippines.” A staff member at the nightclub was also accused by a person living in the local community, saying, “Your pub spread[s] the virus of COVID-19,” and eventually some staff decided to go back to the Philippines because “their feelings were hurt by repeated slander against them” (Mainichi Shimbun, 2020a).

According to the research participants, rumors that a COVID-19 infection cluster seemed to have originated in a nightclub where Filipino staff were employed spread instantly when the local media reported the first COVID-19 case in the nightlife town. Although no scientific evidence indicates that the infections occurred in the nightclub, the local residents continued to spread these racially based rumors, which (along with the government’s self-restraint request) caused a significant decrease in the number of customers, and the nightclub workers’ working hours were reduced. The participants were not laid off, but their income decreased sharply owing to reduced labor shifts and hours. Without the workers’ consent, the nightclub in which they worked was temporarily closed. Eventually, they had no choice but to change jobs, with some deciding to take an additional job during the day.

One single mother (Ms. A, 42 years old) worked in an o-mise four days a week, for five to seven hours per day. She earned US$ 20 per hour, including tips from regular customers, which was double the minimum wage in the study area at that time. However, during the early months of the pandemic, her labor hours gradually decreased as the o-mise decided to close temporarily, and she was eventually not paid at all. She lost her source of income without any advance notification, and there was little financial or physical support from the Filipino community for Ms. A. Some members of the Filipino female migrant communities had prejudices and sexual stereotypes based on the Catholic doctrine or cultural values regarding women’s work in nightclubs. They intentionally avoided interacting with Filipino hostesses (Ono, 2023). Hence, the women who worked in nightclubs felt extremely segregated from other Filipino women and Japanese residents in the area. How did Filipino migrant workers employed in nightclubs overcome these severe problems and employment conditions?

From nightclub to factory

One of the regular customers, the president of the largest food-processing company in the region of the study area, played a key role in helping these women escape their financial crisis. He offered these Filipino women the opportunity to work in a food-processing factory (Company A), which produced ready-to-eat food such as noodles and “lunch boxes” or bento for convenience stores and local supermarkets. Approximately 100 foreign employees with various visa statuses, including temporary and permanent, had been hired and worked with Japanese coworkers in Company A. At that time, noodles and bento were popular, especially during the “stay home” policy under the state of emergency imposed by the government in 2020. As the demand for bento at home increased, a greater supply was urgently required.

Even before the pandemic, the food-processing industry was considered one of the busiest sectors. However, it constantly faced workforce shortages. According to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries entitled Vision for Overcoming Labor Shortages in the Food Production Industry (MAFF, 2019), the food-processing industry faced a serious labor shortage, especially in rural areas, primarily owing to the insufficient mechanization in the factories and an aging workforce. The “utilization of foreign human resources” or Gaikoku Jinzai no Katsuyoo is considered one of the important ways to resolve the labor shortage (MAFF, 2019: 5, 35). Many migrant workers, both permanent and non-permanent residents—such as foreign students and interns who were generally considered de facto workers under the “side door” immigration policy of Japan—were already counted as an important labor force in the food-processing industry. Therefore, Company A employed many technical trainees even before the pandemic. However, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign students and technical interns were unable to enter the country due to border closures. As a result, Company A suddenly lost many potential employees. ⁴

In response, Company A began to prioritize recruiting migrants with permanent visas and reemploying unemployed nightclub workers during the pandemic. Filipino nightclub workers became an important source of “essential” workers who sustained the food industry by filling the labor shortage caused by border closures, supporting the government’s “stay home” policy by assisting in the production of ready-to-eat foods.

How did Filipino women work in the food-processing factory?

While these Filipino migrant workers left nightclubs to join the food-processing industry, their actual labor conditions, such as the contractual terms and factory environment, deteriorated over time. Ms. B (45 years old), who worked for a different food-processing company (Company B), explained her labor conditions and environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. B migrated to Japan in the 1990s and was employed in a nightclub, and she eventually married a Japanese man. After separating from her husband, she resumed working in a nightclub and later in the food-processing industry. According to her, the number of workers in the factory was consistently insufficient even before the pandemic, and six processing lines for bento and ready-to-eat foods were fully operated daily during the pandemic. She became busier during the pandemic because migrant workers who were supposed to be new employees were unable to enter the country, and her working hours increased. At the busiest times, she exceeded her contracted labor hours by more than four hours. Consequently, her health deteriorated. She was responsible for preparing ingredients and washing lettuce with cold water while keeping her neck bent and exposing her back to the cold air from the air conditioner. Her hands and back were in constant pain, and she experienced dizziness. During the pandemic, labor conditions and the environment deteriorated significantly because of the labor shortage caused by the border closure policy and the spread of infections among workers. Such worsened labor and environmental conditions can lead to illness.

Ms. C (age 50 years), a former nightclub worker now employed in a factory, found the task physically demanding. She worked in the factory for 24 hours, and workers’ labor shifts were scheduled for both day and night shifts in the production line. Having worked as a hostess in a nightclub, where she sat beside customers throughout her working hours, she found working in the food-processing factory physically challenging as it required standing by the conveyor belt for up to eight hours. For middle-aged women, standing by a conveyor belt was a completely different labor condition from working at nightclubs. This was evidently physically challenging work.

Another concern among workers was the higher risk of infection. The food-processing factory carried out strict sanitation management inside the factory. Factory workers had to observe sanitization rules every day. These not only included basic sanitization measures, such as the measurement of body temperature and disinfection, but also additional measures, such as wearing disposable protective clothing and cleaning the dust on garments. Even after going to the bathroom, the measurements were repeated. However, the factory did not implement any sanitation management for the pick-up bus to bring workers to the factory. Because the factory is located far from the train station, the company bus had to pick up the workers. That bus was crowded and densely packed without social distancing during the pandemic. According to Ms. A, workers who used this bus twice a day, when going to the factory and going home, were always at risk of infection.

Under the threat of job dismissal, it was difficult for them to reject requests from their Japanese supervisors for additional job shifts, even if they felt unwell or sick. Ms. B was assigned her shift by a Japanese supervisor when a Taiwanese coworker was infected with COVID-19. During this period, several coworkers became sick, leading her to consider refusing her shift. However, fearing a potential job loss, she felt compelled to continue working. She stated, “I had no choice but to work.”

Food-processing factory workers are generally part-time, non-regular employees. They received a wage of only 850 Japanese yen (JP¥) (US$ 6) per hour on the day shift, which is below the minimum wage of JP¥ 895 (US$ 6.5) in the study area. The wages in these factories were notably low and significantly lower than those in nightclub jobs, where they earned higher basic hourly wages and additional tips from customers. Regarding Ms. B’s factory employment contract, the hiring term was only three months, the minimum hiring term prescribed by the Labor Standards Act of Japan. Although the three-month contract can be renewed multiple times based on employee requests, the decision depends on the company. Ms. B observed that some coworkers’ contracts were not renewed without prior notice, despite this being an illegal practice.

These workers are treated as “disposable,” easily discarded by their employers at any time. Furthermore, the precariousness of “essential” work increased during the pandemic. Although these workers are essential in resolving the labor shortage, they remain low-paid and without prospects for promotions. It is evident that they remain vulnerable and invisible within the workforce. Changing jobs does not necessarily provide them with a better work environment or reputation. Many frontline workers in food-processing plants experienced precariousness during the pandemic, similar to those in other countries (Rowland et al., 2022; Triandafyllidou, 2022).

Invisibility and precariousness as “essential” frontline workers

During the early period of the pandemic, Filipino female immigrants decided to change jobs after their income was reduced, using informal networks rather than formal employment consultation services or government benefits. This job-changing process was informal and not open to everyone. Before the pandemic, Filipino workers were usually hired through introductions from Filipino friends and nightclub owners, forming informal networks in their own ethnic communities, especially in the same industry. Filipino nightclub workers had limited opportunities to interact with both Filipino women and Japanese residents, aside from their customers. Furthermore, they had been living with narrow networks within their closed community and had found a way out of the difficult situation by relying on people they happened to meet in their workplace instead of accessing government support.

After they began working in the food-processing industry, they worked to sustain stable, ready-to-eat food supplies for the local society as “essential” workers in the midst of the pandemic. However, they were low-paid, blue-collar workers engaging in physically demanding jobs in inadequate labor environments. While factory workers’ safe and healthy labor environment was ignored due to their “invisible” presence in both factories with thick walls and no windows and the densely populated pick-up buses, consumers who bought ready-to-eat foods to observe the government’s “stay home” policy were being protected from COVID-19 infection. The food-processing industry plays a key role in the economy and in maintaining daily life by providing a stable food supply. Filipino migrant women play a key role in sustaining local industries in rural areas. During the pandemic, the food-processing factory was one of the most important components of social infrastructure, along with medical workers and delivery workers, who were eventually referred to as frontline or essential workers when the Japanese government issued a voluntary self-restraint request and adopted a “stay home” policy. As “essential” workers, the Filipino women workers began supporting society at the frontline, after changing jobs during the pandemic.

Additionally, from the perspective of reproductive labor (Truong, 1996), this occupational transition represents the transfer from “reproduction” (nightclubs) to “production” (food-processing factory) labor. Truong (1996) examined the concept of reproductive labor and specific occupation from the perspective of feminism: Reproduction as a concept includes maintaining and sustaining human beings throughout their life cycles, referred to as “reproductive economy” and “sex-affective services,” among others. According to this definition, nightclubs are places for reproduction while food-processing factories are production sites.

Filipino migrant workers were engaged in both the feminized reproductive labor and essential production sectors. They worked in an exploitative and harsh environment in which their rights as workers and human beings were not guaranteed. Reproductive labor is carried out by marginalized women, especially migrant women, who support social reproduction in society. However, the media did not necessarily focus on the efforts or contributions of the Filipino migrant workers. ⁵ They were surrounded by multiple axes of invisibility in the labor sphere and community network in Japanese society, where their lives and jobs were supported within the ethnic community and an informal network that had little relationship with the majority of Japanese residents. In other words, they had engaged in sexually stigmatized work and had been invisible to the local community, and were previously recognized as “disposable” workers whose rights, issues or vulnerabilities as workers during the pandemic were not fully addressed.