Foreign direct investments, on the other hand, increase gender equality in the labor market
by reducing income gaps between men and women and providing more career opportunities
to women working in foreign firms (Valarreal and Yu 2007, Ono 2007). This study,
through Chinese immigrant women’s labor market experiences in Japanese firms, explores
the impacts of a third aspect of economic globalization—international labor migration— on
gender stratification in the labor market.
Gender inequality characterizes Japanese firms’ employment practices. Corporate
Japanese women face insurmountable institutional and organizational barriers in their
career advancement. Compared to men with similar educational backgrounds, they are
assigned to corporate positions with fewer responsibilities, less income earning potential
and fewer promotion opportunities (Brinton 1992). Foreign direct investment provides a
much needed career alternative to Japanese women. Ono (2007)’s comparison of Japanese
employees’ career patterns in foreign and domestic firms in Japan indicates that foreign
corporations in Japan, with their short-term market-based operational logic and skill
centered personnel management styles, provide better pay and more job opportunities to
Japanese women than those working in domestic firms (Ono 2007). As a consequence,
many Japanese women seek international education in US professional schools to gain
access to foreign firms in Japan (Sugano 1990, Ono and Piper 2004).
The current study investigates how another form of economic globalization—
international labor migration—together with other economic forces might also bring about
changes to the gendered employment structure in Japanese firms. While through
international education many Japanese women seek to break out of the domestic labor
2
Convention