Political Activism and the Expansion of Rights for Transnational Migrant Workers: South Korea and Japan in Comparative Perspective Working Draft • Do Not Cite By

Beginning in the 1980s, both Japan and South Korea began to experience a significant increase in global immigration. In Japan, the bulk of “new ” immigration began in 1985, when an increasing number of immigrants—or more accurately, transnational (migrant) workers—began to flow into Japan’s small and medium-sized industries. By 1991, the total population o