Abstract
This is a gloomy tale of a Minahasan community, a Christian minority ethnic group originally from North Sulawesi, that settled in Oarai, a beach town, in Ibaraki Perfecture, in the east coast of Japan. This Minahasan community, many of them with their family, are mostly over stayers, working as casual workers in many small family type fish processing companies. There are several versions, according to their oral history, how they finally settled and form a community of about a thousand people in Japan. There are four social institutions that critically important to sustain this community of undocumented migrants: Church, Kaisha (Work Place), Family and “Kerukunan” or Village Association. These four social institutions constituting the pillars in which the livelihood of this fragile migrant community is supported. Their fragility is obvious as they don’t have proper documentation. Their Japanese employers, and to a lesser extent their priests, become their main interlocutors with their host country. Family and “Kerukunan” provide a bonding value for them in Japan and with their fellow Minahasans at home. Since 1990 when the Japanese changing their immigration law and allowing the Japanese descendants (Nikkeijin) to work more permanently, the faith of this Minahasan community is threaten as the Japanese employers prefer the “Nikkejin” than the over stayers.
While unskilled foreign workers are barred in principle from entering the country to work, in actual fact large numbers are working illegally, and there appears to be a well-established network helping them to get into the country and to find jobs. (Haruo Shimada 1994: 202)
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Notes
- 1.
I first researched the Minahasan community in Oarai during my 1 year as visiting professor at the Research Institute for Language and Culture of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, in Tokyo (2003–2004). My last visit in January 2005 was supported by the ICCI of Kanda University of International Studies. I would like to thank above all my many Minahasan friends in Oarai for sharing their stories with me. I would also like to thank my former host, Professor Koji Miyazaki (ILCAA), for his constant support. I am very grateful for the various kinds of support provided by Dr. Iko Pramudiono (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Tokyo), Rev. Albert Adam (Gereja Interdenominasi Injili Indonesia, Oarai), Professors Roger Downey (Sophia University), Jun Wada and Mika Okushima (Kanda University of International Studies) and my interpreter Go Iwata (undergraduate student at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies).
- 2.
The situation of Indonesian migrant workers in Japan was almost unknown in Indonesia until recently. A special publication on the lives of Minahasan workers in Japan was issued by the Excel Foundation (Yayasan Excel 2003) in conjunction with a fund raising event and theatrical music show under the theme ‘Solidarity Night with Indonesian Migrant Workers in Japan’. An issue of Tempo weekly published in August 2003 also presented a special report on Indonesian female workers in the sex industry in Japan. Papers on the Minahasan workers in Japan are also available from the seminar in Manado, North Sulawesi , organised by a Christian NGO, the Centre for Indonesian Migrant Workers (CIMW) in Jakarta. In addition, a short report on the Minahasan in Oarai was also presented by Pudjiastuti (2004) during a seminar at ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in January 2004.
- 3.
While the term kerukunan is a standard Indonesian (Malay ) term for the traditional social institutions found in many regions, this concept includes, in Minahasan society, both social and economic reciprocal ties between people.
- 4.
This figure was obtained through my own calculations based on the 2000 Population Census and raw data on ethnicity provided by the Biro Pusat Statistik (Central Bureau of Statistics ). Based on the categorisation of the Minahasan in these statistics, I group together other ethnic minorities that are sometimes considered to be Minahasan, such as the Tonsawang, Tontemboan, Tonsea, Tombalo and Bantik.
- 5.
A recent report shows that the worsening economic welfare of the people in Minahasa has resulted partly from the current practice among the rich of buying land from the poor, significantly contributing to the increasing number of families who live below the poverty line. For a comprehensive analysis of the economic situation in North Sulawesi, see Sondakh and Jones (2003).
- 6.
For example, the migration of the Thai to Japan is not due to poverty ; rather, it is believed to serve as a way of earning money easily and quickly in order to establish a reputation, to buy a house and land or to start a new business using their earnings from Japan (Ruenkaew 2004). However, as Ruenkaew (2004: 39) finds, the most decisive factor in their migration is the embedment of social and kinship networks. The transnational migration of the Thais constitutes migration chains, in which the pioneers function as the starting points of a social network between the new area of residence and the home community, as a source of information on living and working conditions and on modalities of entrance into the target country and also as the organisers of newcomers. With these networks, the migration of Thais has become self-sustaining. In many cases, such networks function more efficiently than the process offered earlier by the brokers. In addition, recruitment by relatives is free of charge, although the migrants must pay other costs, such as document fees.
- 7.
The recruitment of female entertainers from Indonesia to work in night clubs in several cities of Japan was reported by Tempo (August 2003).
- 8.
The number of Indonesian migrants registered by the local government is very likely lower than the actual number of migrants, due to overstay.
- 9.
This person is now the longest Minahasan overstayer in Oarai as well as the Minahasan resident who has been in Oarai the longest.
- 10.
Indonesia was hit by a monetary crisis in 1997, and many people have suffered inflation and job loss; the political situation has also quickly deteriorated.
- 11.
It would be interesting to examine the social and economic impact of Minahasan workers in Japan on their families, as well as the impact on their home villages or regions.
- 12.
See the NHK Special Program Series, Close-up Gendai (NHK broadcast in September 2002).
- 13.
The problem of long separation of a couple because of labour migration to Japan, for instance, and the resultant influence on their children, has been a concern of several Christian NGOs in Manado and Jakarta. A special seminar organised by the Centre for International Migrant Workers (CIMW) to address the problems and issues of Minahasan workers in Japan was held in August 2003 in Manado, North Sulawesi . In this seminar, several papers were presented, among others an eye witness report by a priest, Meiva Lintang (2003), Labourers: The right, responsibility and its system in Japan, based on her experience and observation working with Indonesian workers in Japan.
- 14.
For example, see the Japanese newspapers, Mainichi-Shinbun, 1 February 2002 and 30 March 2002 and Asashi-Shinbun, 1 November 2002.
- 15.
The availability of mobile phones makes it very easy for the Minahasan to communicate with their friends and families in Japan as well as in Indonesia. For a vivid description of the life of irregular migrants in Japan, see, for example, Ray Ventura’s semiautobiographical Underground in Japan (1992) and the informative analytical review of the book by Caroline Sy Hau (2003).
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Tirtosudarmo, R. (2018). The Making of a Minahasan Community in Oarai, Japan. In: The Politics of Migration in Indonesia and Beyond. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-9032-5_10
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