Selection Committee Chair Prof. Shigeto Sonoda

This fiscal year, Mr. Akihiko Tanaka, who has been Chair of the Selection Committee for this Special Subject since fiscal 2019, has stepped down and I have been appointed, taking over this very important job. I have been the International Grant Program Selection Committee Chair since fiscal 2018. Thus I hold two concurrent jobs this fiscal year.
In the International Grant Program, we have been receiving proposals on the theme of migrants and foreign human resources. Proposals in the program need to identify social issues that involve at least two countries in Asia. Japan may not be included in the countries. In the Special Subject, on the other hand, it is required that projects focus on foreign residents in Japan. This is a major difference from the International Grant Program. The key point for the application is how to interpret the "Japanese society" as in the subject title, "Migrants and Japanese Society" and envision the future.
As in previous years, we issued a call for proposals on any of the five themes below.

(1) Creation of an environment for maximizing the skills and potential of foreign talent
(2) Minimizing gaps among foreign residents in their access to information
(3) Examination of human and other resources in support of the care and support systems for foreign residents
(4) Attracting skilled human resources from abroad
(5) Lessons from insights and experiences gained through Japanese companies’ overseas operations

The proposal submission period was from September 5 to November 19, 2022. During this period, we held two online briefing sessions, and nearly 50 people participated in the sessions. About 20 project representatives consulted us before applying, compared with about 30 project representatives in the previous year.
There were a total of 68 registrations and 44 of them applied in the end. This number is six lower than the previous year, when we received applications for 50 projects.
The 44 grant requests were for a median of 9.22 million yen (the minimum amount was 4.00 million yen, and the maximum amount was 10.00 million yen). Only ten projects requested a grant of 7.00 million yen or less, and it was difficult to increase the number of the grantees, even if we had adjusted the total amount of the grants.
Looking at the attributes of the representatives, 12 university researchers and 11 NPO/NGO staff members stood out. There were 26 respondents to a survey of the project representatives that indicated that more than half of the respondents, 14 representatives, had applied previously. Assuming that all 18 representatives who did not respond to the survey had not applied for a grant, the representatives who had previously applied were 31.8% of applicants. We assume that many representatives have repeatedly applied for grants.
Many of the 20 projects which were awarded the grants in the previous years are related to themes (1) and (2). Only a small number of projects were related to themes (4) and (5). The applications this fiscal year showed a similar trend.

First, program officers (POs) reviewed submitted documents and removed those that had deficiencies or were judged as not meeting the application requirements. Three Selection Committee members then reviewed primarily the applications that had not been removed, reading all of the applications partly because the number was low. The Selection Committee members carefully selected the projects which would be awarded grants. The committee members asked the representatives of projects that could possibly be selected questions and took their answers into consideration.
A meeting of the Selection Committee was held on February 1, 2023. The committee's discussion lasted almost three hours and it selected the five projects below as grantees. Let me concisely describe the projects. The descriptions below include comments about their selection.

D22-MG-0015　Yukiko Furuya, Board Chair, CSO Network Japan
“Survey for improving labor and human rights issues of foreign workers through dialogue and development of guidebook for utilizing dialogue”
This proposal is related to themes (1) and (5). It pays attention to the fact that some Japanese companies that have supply chains overseas (affiliates engaging in processes from the procurement of raw materials to the sale of products) have successfully solved labor issues and human rights issues related to foreign workers through dialogue with local workers. The project aims to contribute to solving a range of labor and human rights issues impacting foreign workers by creating a guidebook based on interviews with people involved. The project will have bases in Hiroshima and Hamamatsu and plans to cooperate with private-sector companies. It plans to hold workshops in Tokyo. In the workshops, a guidebook that will be edited based on interviews in Thailand will be used. The project will collaborate primarily with CSO Network Japan and also with lawyers and ILO in Japan. Practical activities are expected.

D22-MG-0017      Hisano Hori, Representative of a board of directors, Global Human Resources Hamamatsu
“Survey and research on the audit and evaluation system for employment of foreign workers and development of model projects”

This project is related to theme (1) and is based on an awareness of problems that are similar to those addressed in the project above in that the issue of foreign workers' human rights is a theme in both projects. Specifically, the project aims to set up a council consisting of people from business, experts and other members, and evaluate the protection of foreign workers' human rights leveraging the audit and evaluation systems of employers. The project will carry out awareness-raising activities, including the presentation of best practices at companies to the public, and it will offer to help companies be selected by foreign workers. There is a trend of emphasizing the negative aspects of the issue of foreign workers' human rights, including criticism of companies that do not protect the foreign employees’ human rights. However, the project plans to highlight the consistent good practices of companies and carry out awareness-raising activities, which was highly evaluated by the committee members.

D22-MG-0018      Hirotake Mori, Associate Professor, Department of General Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Juntendo University
“Development of a platform to support overseas doctors with various backgrounds work in Japan”

This proposal is related to themes (3) and (4) and it plans to create a platform that will help foreign medical doctors become qualified in Japan and overcome the difficulty of practicing medicine over the long term. Specifically, the project plans to (i) post information about national exams for medical practitioners and life in Japan on its website, (ii) interview foreign doctors, (iii) hold seminars on national exams for medical practitioners and create a platform to exchange information regularly, and (iv) do consulting related to training hospitals, post-training work, and careers as doctors. It is expected that doctors from different countries working and conducting research at Juntendo University, where the project’s representative is working as an associate professor, will participate in the project. The project is expected to contribute to the creation of an environment where foreign doctors can live without worries despite strict regulations on doctor licensing in Japan.

D22-MG-0032      Keiko Ikeda, Professor, Kansai University
“Establishment of an innovative employability enhancement support scheme for science and engineering international students in post-graduate English track programs in Japan”

The project is related to theme (4) and focuses on science and engineering students who aim to earn a degree in English after coming to Japan leveraging the Global 30 Project: Establishing University Network for Internationalization or the Super Global University (SGU) Creation Support Project, which are internationalization support projects of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). This project is an industry-academia collaboration to help more students be hired by and continue to work for Japanese corporations. The number of science and engineering students who are hired by Japanese corporations is lower than expected because of constraints on the time for earning a degree and their insufficient Japanese language proficiency. The goal of the project is to improve the situation through online support for students and cooperation with companies. The project is carefully planned to involve not only university teachers, but also NGOs, businesses, government agencies and foreign embassies in Japan to support international students.

D22-MG-0039      Tamotsu Nakasa, Chair, SHARE (Services for the Health in Asian & African Regions)
“Supporting migrant workers in accessing health information, developing pathways to health services, and strengthening partnership”

The proposal is related to themes (2) and (3). The project will strive to disseminate the health handbook for Vietnamese workers working in Japan which is a deliverable of the project "Supporting migrant communities in accessing information and developing pathways for testing, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19," which received a grant under this program in 2020. The handbooks will be distributed first to the Vietnamese communities and then to people from other Asian countries, including Myanmar, Nepal and Indonesia, in Japan. The handbook was published during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only the dissemination within the Vietnamese communities, the project also plans to disseminate information to people who have come to Japan from parts of Southeast Asia other than Vietnam. This sustained effort was highly evaluated by the Selection Committee.

The Selection Committee discussed whether it would award grants to five projects or seven projects. In the end, the committee has decided to award grants to the five projects above. This decision was based on the following reasons: 1) If grants had been awarded to seven projects, the grant amount per project would have been reduced and the initial plans would have had to be changed significantly, 2) The evaluation of the five projects was higher than the remaining two projects, and 3) It was difficult to select one of the remaining two projects since they were considered equally valuable. It is a pity that the total amount of the grants is lower than initially planned.
However, the fact that all five themes are related to at least one of the five projects which received grants should be highly regarded. In the past, the number of applications related to themes (4) or (5) have been small, therefore, few grants were awarded to projects related to them. However, this time, I am glad to see that grants have been awarded to projects related to them. There are many elements where selected projects can learn from each other. I hope that they will collaborate with each other.
All of the representatives of the projects which received the grant have a wealth of experience at universities, NGOs and NPOs. In that sense, I think that the selection results are reasonable. However, I wish I could have seen proposals not only from people who support them, but also from foreign residents themselves. The children of the Asian immigrants who came to Japan in the 1990s have already become old enough to apply for this program to change Japanese society.
How will we change Japanese society to accept foreign nationals? Going forward, I hope many people will make specific proposals to make changes.