by

Abstract. The 2011 great east Japan earthquake in Tohoku area caused more than 15,883 deaths. It widely affected on a number of groups including migrants. This study aims to investigate the impact of natural disasters on migrant workers who are vulnerable to such situations, and their working conditions based on primary data and in-depth analysis. The study also employed a developed analytical framework using a difference-in-differences analysis to probe in a qualitative approach. The study suggested that the lack of preparedness for natural disasters, limited accessibilities to up-to-date information in their languages as well as uncertainties to forecast their future employment status were crucial to their work and future expectation in the post-disaster recovery period. Though a number of organizations provided multi-language media, including radio and internet-based information, apparently the accessible rate to migrants was limited. From this study, all respondents confirmed that the impact on their work and employment cannot be measured by the employment rate alone. The deepening impact had grown its roots to low-income migrants, which did not reflect by statistics. Their wages and overtime hours were reduced resulting in a decrease in their total income until these days. In addition, the majority of people interviewed were covered by social insurance, but they were reluctant to pursue claims because of the absence of knowledge of social insurance, as well as complicated paper work. The government project for victims ’ employment and livelihood benefited only some migrants indirectly, through financial support of small and medium businesses due to limited inaccessibility to the assistances. Therefore, migrant workers should be one of target groups for labour-related policies at th