CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION OF INDONESIAN MUSLIM WOMEN MIGRANT WORKERS IN JAPAN

Authors: Sri Lestari & Filia

ABSTRACT

The shinking and rapidly aging population forced Japan to accept more migrant workers, including from Indonesia, a majority Muslim population country in South East Asia. Indonesian and Japan signed an agreement in 1993 to send workers to Japan under the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) and since 2008 Indonesian nurse have been working in Japan’s elderly facilities and hospital. Other than that, many Indonesian living in Japan working as a high-skilled workers or university student. The number of Indonesian migrant workers increasing every year. Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo mention that most of Indonesian in Japan are Muslims. Moved from Muslims mayority country to non-predominant Muslims is a big challenge for Indonesian migrant workers to maintain their religious identity, especially to perfomed prayer and swomen with hijab. This research aims to find out the process of cultural adaptation among Indonesia Muslims women migrant workers in Japan, using Young Yun Kim’s approach model stress-adaptation-growth on Integrative theory of Communication and Cross-Cultural Adaptation. Qualitative data collected from September-October 2024 through semi-structured interviews with Indonesian Muslims women migrant workers who hold semi-skilled visa SSW and trainee and field observation with joining the Indonesian Muslims women gathering at a mosque near Tokyo. Futhermore, deepen knowledge about Japanese language skill and culture enable them to convincing their company about the wearing of hijab in the workplace but they are forced to adjust the prayer time due to work environment.

Index Terms- Migrant workers, Muslim Women, Indonesian, Religious Identity, Cultural Adaptation

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