COMPLETION REPORT“Make Japan Cool for Evwerybody?” An analysis of Indonesian Trainee (Gaikokujin Kenshusei Seido) in Japan(Between Hope and Reality)

Dr. Yusy Widarahesty
Full Time Lecturer and Coordinator for East Asian Area of Studies
International Relations Department
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences
University of Al Azhar Indonesia
The objective of this study is to evaluate the implementation and the image of Indonesian TechnicalInternship Trainee Program in Japan or known as TITP especially in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Shiga area.
This research examined Indonesian Migrant Workers/Kenshusei in Japan especially in the private sector and companies
through ethnographic fieldwork and net-nographic fieldwork to elaborate and clarify about the reality life of Indonesianmigrants workers (kenshusei) in Japan through deep interview and also see it by their media social such as Face Book. The
investigation was done both in Indonesian with Indonesian government and also the alumni of Indonesian kenshusei
association, and with on going Indonesian Kenshusei in Japan as well. The research question in this research are: 1) how
is the reality life or the implementation of Indonesian kenshusei in Japan, and how the Indonesian Kenshusei form animage as a migrant workers in Japan by see it through their media social such as Face book by using the theoretical frame
work of Issue linkage by E.B Haas as a conceptual foundation to see the relations between Japan and Indonesia and socialmedia, which In social media people voluntarily share content, for example videos, texts, images, music, through online
platforms and with the help of applications that are based on social software. The content in social media has its own audience asthe traditional media, like TV, radio, megazines and newspapers have, but the biggest difference is that people enjoy sharing thecontent they have made themselves or maybe copied from others. In this context to see the image from the trainee programin Japan, I used the netnography methodology to see and gauge what they daily activities which displayed through theirsocial media such as through face book, Instagram, etc and how the reality condition of their life as a trainee itself.
The research finds that the positive impression of this trainee program can be seen clearly from the picture or appearance
shown by the trainee participants in Japan through their social media. From the 10 trainees interviewed, 9 of them displayeda very positive impression of the program through their social media. Japan succeeded in giving a wonderfully cool ofpositive image, and it is seen through anyone who has visited Japan both being studying, tourists and of course for thekenshusei itself. Secondly After doing field observation by following and looking deeper into the activities of thesekenshusei, it turns out there are some things that are found contrary to what they display through social media. the photosof happiness taken in every corner of the beauty and sparkling city of Japan is not worth and not as “Cool” as the daily
sacrifice of the kenshusei's life. Such as still found a lot of exploitation of working hours, and inadequate facilities from theresidence of the kenshusei etc. but the constraints and problems are often reluctant to be expressed by the kenshusei.
Besides the reason for language skills, there is also a lack of understanding of the kenshusei regarding to the flow of
mechanisms related to the rules of contractual and procedures in their employment agreement

Publication of the Results of Research Project:
1. Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)
Date: September 2018
Venue: Seoul, South Korea
Name of The Conference: The 4th Asia Future Conference (AFC) Organized by Sekiguchi Foundation-Japan
Title of The Presentation: “Make Japan Cool For Everybody: An Analysis of Indonesian Kenshusei Image in Japan”
Presenter: Yusy Widarahesty*Thispaper
has
beenawardedasoneofthe20BestPaper(link:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.aisf.or.jp/AFC/2018/files/List_of_AFC4_B
EST_PAPERS.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiU5d3I5vTiAhXaLqYKHctJCqg4FBAWMAt6BAgBEAE&usg=AOvVaw2
WJoB_GTydRVeYzKLyCT5v

2. Date: 5-6 December 2018
Venue: Jakarta, Indonesia
Name of The Conference: The 6th Japan Studies Association ASEAN (JSA) Conference Organized by The JapanFoundation-Japan
Title of The Presentation: “Make Japan Cool For Everybody An Analysis of Indonesian Kenshusei Image in Japan”
Presenter: Yusy Widarahesty
Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)
Publisher: Japan Times
Date of Book: 2019 April 05
Title: Toward The Future Of Asia: My Proposal Vol. 4 (link: https://bookclub.japantimes.co.jp/book/b452442.html
Author of The Book: Yusy Widarahesty